


More Than A Hero

by Alpacasarethegreenestanimal



Series: To Be A Hero [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Angst, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Logic | Logan Sanders Angst, M/M, Morality | Patton Sanders Angst, Slow Burn, Superheroes, Superpowers, They aren't okay and they're all really bad at communicating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2020-10-31 04:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20786285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alpacasarethegreenestanimal/pseuds/Alpacasarethegreenestanimal
Summary: Sequel to What makes a hero?It's been four months since Virgil, Roman, Patton and Logan defeated Deceit, and needless to say none of them are coping very well. Between Patton acting like nothing happened, Logan pretending that what happened didn't have any lasting effect on him and Roman distracting himself by throwing everything he has into being a superhero, Virgil is in the rather confusing position of being the most well adjusted of the four.Not that he's coping very well either. He just wants to move on with his life now that Deceit's gone and be his own person, but can he really ever escape his past?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I know it's been a while, but I'm back for the sequel!
> 
> I'm also writing a small prequel to add a bit of backstory for Logan, Patton and Emile so be on the look out for that.
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy :)
> 
> TW: References to emotional and physical abuse

Virgil smiled fondly as he glanced around at the extremely colourful array of cartoon memorabilia covering every inch of Dr Emile Picani's office. While he had initially been against the idea of seeing a therapist, after a lot of pleading from Patton he had agreed to go at least once, and found that maybe it was not as torturous as he had feared. Maybe.

There had been a lot of new things in Virgil's life over the past few months, and while he usually was not a big fan of change, he certainly wasn't complaining this time. His current situation was definitely a lot better than his last one.

Virgil brushed his purple fringe out of his face. He had let his friend Remy dye it for him after one too many lectures about the fact that colours other than black actually existed. That was a bit rich coming from someone who always wore a leather jacket, but as Virgil actually quite liked it he wasn't going to complain.

Following on from the realisation that he actually quite liked the colour purple, he had also assembled a new wardrobe, featuring something other than black jeans, black t-shirts and a single black hoodie. And if maybe it had something to do with the fact that he wanted to distance himself from his time with Deceit, well that wasn't anybody's business.

"Hellooooooooo nurse!" Virgil jumped as Dr Emile Picani appeared in the doorway.

Virgil saluted awkwardly, still caught slightly off guard at Picani's rather unconventional entrances.

"Hello again, Virgil!" Dr Picani smiled as he took a seat and reached for his notebook. 

"’Sup."

"So, how is everything going?" Dr Emile Picani asked as he peered over his glasses at the man perched on his couch. 

"Not bad." Virgil shrugged.

"'Not bad'?" Picani repeated, flipping open his notebook. "Well that definitely sounds much more positive than last week! Is there a reason for that?"

"Yeah, um…" Virgil fiddled with his hands. "Well I did what you suggested, and er… I think that maybe it helped a bit?"

Dr Picani smiled. "I know it doesn't always seem like it, but I do actually know what I'm talking about."

Virgil smiled back. "Forgive me for being sceptical, but sometimes it's difficult finding the words of wisdom hidden between the ramblings about cartoon rocks."

Picani laughed. "Your disapproval would be a bit more convincing if I didn't know for a fact that you've seen the entire series."

Virgil stuck out his tongue.

"Now, before you distract me any further," Dr Picani began as he used his pen to push his glasses back up his nose. "As you said that you'd tried my suggestion, would I be correct in assuming that you've finally talked to someone about some of the things that happened four months ago?"

"Yep."

"That's great to hear!" Picani beamed. "I was beginning to worry that Patton, Roman and Logan were never going to open up about what happened!"

Virgil grimaced. "Yeah, about that…"

Picani's smile fell. "Ah. Well that's okay. They still have time to-"

"To actually learn how to deal with what happened instead of just pretending it didn't?"

Picani sighed. "Yes… But we aren't here to talk about them, we're here for you. So who did you talk to?"

"Well… you remember me talking about Remy?"

Dr Picani flicked through his notebook. "Remy, Remy…. Ah yes! Your friend from work?"

"Yes. Well, some stuff happened and I kinda… told him some stuff…" 

_ "’Sup, girl! Sorry I'm late!"  _

_ Virgil glanced at the clock and rolled his eyes as Remy burst through the doors of the Starbucks where they worked. It was 4:57 am, so technically he was here earlier than usual. At least he had arrived before they opened. _

_ "It's chill. No one's come in yet," Virgil dismissed, smiling at his friend. _

_ Remy grinned as he joined Virgil behind the counter and began to make himself a coffee. "You're too good to me, babe." _

_ "Going straight for the coffee, I see? I'm offended," Virgil laughed. _

_ "First of all, bitch, I don't go 'straight' to anything." _

_ Virgil smirked at the joke. _

_ "And second, as much as I love you, my first priority will always be caffeine." _

_ Virgil raised his eyebrows. "How much coffee have you even had today?" _

_ "That depends on what counts as 'today'."  _

_ "Since you woke up this morning?"  _

_ Remy raised an eyebrow. "Honey, if you really think I woke up this morning you have another thing coming." _

_ Virgil rolled his eyes. "Dude, you do realise humans need sleep to live, right?" _

_ "I dunno, sounds like fake news to me."  _

_ The two fell quiet as a woman walked into the building. "One latte to go." _

_ Virgil jumped. "Oh, er, right…" _

_ "Come on, I don't have all day," she snapped. _

_ "Sorry, ma'am, if you'll just give me a minute I'll… I'm sorry, what was your order again?" _

_ "Jesus Christ…" The woman muttered. "One latte. To go." _

_ "Yes… Remy?" _

_ "On it," Remy replied as he switched on the coffee machine. _

_ "Anything else?" Virgil asked. _

_ "No. Just a bit of speed would be nice." _

_ Virgil smiled awkwardly. _

_ "I'll give you a bit of speed you bit-" Virgil coughed as Remy began to mutter under his breath. _

_ Noticing the coffee was ready, Virgil picked it up and held it out to the woman, rather eager for her to leave. She grabbed it from him forcefully, causing it to slip through her fingers. _

_ Virgil froze, watching as the coffee spilled all over the newly cleaned white counter and the women's light blue shirt. _

_ "What the hell?!" she screamed. Virgil's breathing began to accelerate. _

_ "O-oh my god, I am so sorry!" Virgil felt the panic setting in. He grabbed a bunch of napkins with shaking hands, trying to avoid the urge to just run away from the whole situation. "H-Here, I'll get you a napkin or-" _

_ "I think you've done enough!" _

_ Virgil flinched. "Please don't yell at me." _

_ "Maybe I wouldn't have to if you didn't fuck everything up!"  _

_ Virgil found himself backing away from the counter. "I-I…" _

_ "Jesus christ, what is wrong with you?! Look at what you've done! Are you this much of a failure-"  _

_ Virgil pressed himself against the wall as suddenly it was Deceit screaming at him, he was going to punish him he was so angry he was going to… _

_ "I'm sorry!" he screamed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't-" _

_ "Shut up!" Remy snarled at the woman. "Hey, it's okay, Virgil, it's okay. Breathe with me." _

_ Virgil grasped onto Remy's hand. It was fine. He was safe. Deceit was gone. He was fine. He was fine. _

_ "Excuse me?! Who the hell do you think you a-" _

_ "If you seriously think I'm going to let you speak to my friend like that you've got another thing coming!" Remy grabbed the woman by the arm and dragged her down the corridor to the toilets away from Virgil.  _

_ He sighed in relief as she disappeared. Grabbing some napkins, he began to quickly clean up the spilt coffee, ignoring the slight shaking in his hands. _

_ Just as he was finishing, Remy and the woman reentered the room.  _

_ "Bye, sweetie!" Remy waved. She nodded quickly and hastily exited the shop, refusing to make eye contact with either of them. _

_ Virgil frowned. "What was that about?" he asked, gesturing to her rather speedy exit. _

_ "Just ensuring that our dear Janet over there isn't going to make a complaint about something she shouldn't be complaining about," Remy said with a grin. _

_ "What did you  _ say  _ to her?" _

_ "Nothing to worry about." _

_ "Right…" _

_ "So, sweetie, how are you doing?" _

_ "...fine…" _

_ "Mm hmm," Remy raised an eyebrow. "You were clearly majorly freaking out, girl, don't insult me that 'I'm fine' bs." _

_ "Technically I just said 'fine'," Virgil muttered. _

_ Remy looked at him over his sunglasses. "If you think I'm letting this go then you're dreaming, babe." _

_ Virgil sighed. "I'm sorry, it was stupid, I ju-" _

_ "Hell no! I ain't putting up with any of that self-deprecation crap. No, ma'am. No, ma'am!" _

_ Virgil smiled fondly, before looking down at the ground. "It's just… she said some stuff, and… let's just say the last time someone yelled at me like that it didn't end well…" _

_ Remy nodded for him to continue. _

_ "Well… basically he... we lived together for a bit, so… so the yelling happened a lot. And the… the things he did after the yelling happened a lot… so it wasn't a lot of fun… and so the stuff she was saying kinda… brought back some memories... yeah…" _

_ "Well…" Remy said slowly. "He sounds like a right  _ bitch  _ to me." _

_ "Y-yeah." Virgil laughed. "Yeah, I guess he was a bitch." _

"Well… I'm not the most keen on the language, but I'm so glad you feel comfortable confiding in someone!"

"Yeah, well… Remy's pretty great," Virgil smiled. "He's just… so  _ easy  _ to be around."

Dr Picani's face fell. "As opposed to Patton, Logan and Roman?"

Virgil shifted awkwardly. "It's not that I don't  _ like  _ them or anything, it's just that… well none of them are coping well, and sometimes that makes it hard to be around them. But whenever I'm  _ not  _ Patton gets really upset because he thinks I hate him, which I don't. I just need some  _ space  _ sometimes. And Roman doesn't say it but I  _ know  _ he's still uncomfortable with me leaving the flat. I mean I told you how he was when I got a job! He still doesn't trust me!" The room began to dim as the shadows in the room began to creep forward to surround Virgil.

Picani frowned. "I thought you said-"

"It's hard to explain. It's like, he trusts his  _ brother _ , but he doesn't trust  _ Virgil.  _ Because he doesn't know me. So he refuses to see me as anything other than his brother, and when he  _ does  _ he sees me as Anxiety and he doesn't seem to realise that I'm a separate person outside of 'Roman's brother' and 'dangerous villain' and-"

Virgil stopped his tirade as he realised how dark the room had become. "Sorry, I… I didn't mean to…" Virgil waved his hand to disperse the shadows gathering around him.

"It's alright, Virgil."

"No, it's not," Virgil spat, glaring at the shadows in the corner. "I used to have control over them. How am I meant to convince Roman that I'm  _ not  _ Anxiety if I keep waving it in his face?!" 

"Remember, Virgil, as we discussed before, a lot of your control over your powers came from Deceit's teachings. This means that now that you are trying to distance yourself from him…"

"I'm also distancing myself from the ways he taught me to be in control, yeah, I know…" Virgil sighed. "Nice to know he's still ruining things even from the grave. "

"You will regain control in time, Virgil. You just have to learn not to resent your powers."

"I don't resent them!"

"Are you sure about that, Virgil? It would make sense, given how many of the negative things in your life were the result of you having powers."

"Yeah, whatever…" Virgil looked away, trying to avoid making eye contact with his annoyingly perceptive therapist.

"Well, my suggestion would be for you to try and use them more frequently, just to do regular things."

"Like what? Scaring a screaming child disrupting my shift into silence?"

"Um… no… maybe use your shadows like Logan uses his telekinesis?"

Virgil smirked. "It would help me not have to do as much work… and I do really hate work…"

"That's the spirit! Although by work I would suggest only work you do at home, not-"

"Not in public, I know. I'm not stupid."

"Of course you aren't. And this method of normalising your powers to yourself will hopefully take away the association with Deceit that it currently holds in your mind."

Virgil nodded.

"Well Virgil, unfortunately that's all the time we have for the day. We'll talk more about your relationship with Patton, Logan and Roman next week, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever. Not like I have much else to do anyway." 

…

Logan glared at the clock. It was 2:14 am, and Patton and Roman  _ still  _ hadn't returned. Granted they had been out 'fighting crime' this late before, but that didn't mean that Logan wasn't going through every single possible bad thing that could have happened to his friends in his head. While admittedly this amount of worrying would usually be Virgil's job, the place Virgil worked meant he had to wake up extremely early and so Logan had forced him to go to sleep.

Logan jumped slightly as he heard the front door of the flat open, before closing his book and looking up to see Roman and Patton burst into the apartment, very clearly out of breath.

"Did you see his face?!" Roman laughed. "That really was the highlight of my day! Honestly, if that fiend really thought he could rob a house in  _ my  _ city and get away with it then he must have been even stupider then he looked! And that's saying something because I don't think even…" Roman trailed off as he noticed Logan standing in the middle of the room. 

"Hey, Logan!" Patton grinned.

Logan quickly scanned the two of them. "Neither of you are injured, I hope?"

"We're both fine. Funny how that can happen. It's almost as if two grown men with  _ superpowers  _ can protect themselves," Roman muttered.

"Really?" Logan raised an eyebrow. "Because if I remember correctly just last week I was woken up at four o'clock in the morning to Patton frantically trying to heal a knife wound in your shoulder while dragging around a broken arm. Now correct me if I'm wrong, which I do believe is a rather rare occurrence, but the amount of blood still staining our sofa indicates that you are clearly  _ not  _ able to 'protect yourself'."

"That was one time!" Roman rolled his eyes. 

"Is that so?" Logan reached into his pocket and drew out a notebook. "Well then maybe I should remind you of Wednesday the 15th-"

"Or maybe, you could just shut up?" Roman spat.

"Okay, kiddos!" Patton interjected. "I think we're all  _ very  _ tired, so how about we all go to bed and s-"

"That's a good point, Patton. How silly of me! We have all been up for a very long time, after all," Roman said, making a show of turning towards his room and walking towards his door, before stopping for a minute in apparent 'thought' and then turning back around. "Except, and correct me if I'm wrong, which I do believe is a very rare incurrence, L-"

"Occurrence! I said occurrence! If you're going to mock me the least you could do is do it properly!" Logan snapped. 

Roman glared back. "As I was saying, while Patton does make a very good point, I could have sworn that the whole reason Logan has been staying home in the first place, instead of sacrificing a few short hours for protecting innocent people, was so that he could get his much needed beauty rest."

"Roman, maybe we should-" Patton began.

"No! If Logan is going to prioritise having to  _ 'work in the morning _ ' over saving lives, because of his  _ circadian rhythm  _ or some bullshit, the least he could do is actually be asleep when we get home!" Roman glared at Logan. "You know, that thing you were complaining about not having for three hours last week?!"

"While I would definitely have preferred to try and achieve an appropriate amount of sleep, I didn't want to be woken up to find one or both of you severely injured again!" Logan growled. 

"That's not going to happen!" Roman yelled.

"And how do you know that?!" Logan yelled back.

"Because we have superpowers!"

"But that's not always enough!" Logan screamed. "How many more times of you getting yourself and Patton needlessly injured by running around the city trying to do the police's job for them will it take before you realise that you just need to stop?!" 

Roman rolled his eyes. "We aren't seriously having this argument  _ again,  _ are we?"

"We'll have this argument as many times as we need to until you realise that you're being unbelievably  _ stupid  _ i-"

"Don't you think it's time we were all off to bed?" Patton interjected cheerfully. "We don't want to be tired for work tomorrow, and it's already 3am!

"Well maybe if Roman would  _ admit  _ that he's putting both of you in  _ unnecessary danger- _ "

"Unnecessary?!" Roman sputtered. "How dare you! You call saving the lives of hundreds of people  _ unnecessary _ ?!"

"No, I call doing dangerous jobs other people have been  _ professionally trained to do _ unnecessary!" Logan shouted.

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it when we started!"

"Because when we started we did it to protect the city from people with powers that the police couldn't deal with! And as this is no longer an issue, the two of you are-"

"GUYS!" Patton yelled. Logan and Roman jumped. "Can we not do this again? Please? Not tonight… Can we all just go to bed?"

The crack in Patton's voice immediately brought Logan back to his senses. "Of course, Patton. My apologies. I did not mean for our discussion to get this out of hand."

"Yeah, um… sorry, Pat. I didn't mean to cause you any distress. Maybe if  _ Logan  _ hadn't-"

Logan's anger immediately surged. "Oh, so now you're going to try and blame this all on me?!"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't if you didn't make it so easy t-"

"Guys, please just stop!" Patton yelled.

Logan and Roman glared at each other.

"Right, sorry Patton. I'll see you in the morning." Roman stuck his tongue out at Logan, before heading into his room.

Logan relaxed slightly now that Roman was gone.

"I-I'm sorry, Logan, I didn't want to shout, I just… I don't like it when you guys are fighting!"

"Its okay, Patton, it's just… I'm worried about you. What you and Roman are doing is  _ dangerous _ ! And after… after what happened a few months ago… I've realised how much danger we have been putting ourselves in! I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you or Roman or Virgil…"

"B-But Logan… I can heal anything that-"

"That doesn't solve everything, Patton! Roman seems to believe that our powers mean we can do anything we want, but Deceit clearly illustrates that was not the case!"

The two of them froze. The topic of Deceit was not one that was usually mentioned amongst the four of them.

"I… I apologise, Patton. I shouldn't have brought that up."

"I-It's okay…"

"I just don't want you to get hurt again. I don't want  _ any of us _ to get hurt again!"

Patton flung his arms around Logan. Logan smiled as he hugged Patton back. 

"I know, Patton. I'm worried about all of us as well. I don't think I could bear it if anything happened to you."

"It's going to be okay, Logan. I promise." Patton muttered into Logan's shoulder.

Logan held on for a moment longer before reluctantly pulling away. "We should probably get some sleep."

Patton nodded. "Goodnight Logan."

"Goodnight Patton. I'll see you in the morning." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two! I hope you guys enjoy it :)

Roman jolted awake, gasping for air. After taking a moment to remember how to breathe he glanced around the room. Seeing nothing but his furniture and various other belongings scattered around his room in a half hearted attempt at order, he relaxed slightly.

"It's okay, Roman, it's okay. You aren't there anymore, you're safe. See, it's fine. He's not here."

Roman sat in the quiet of his dark room for a minute, before reaching over to his bedside table, switching on the lamp and looking around his room again. Just to check that he hadn't missed anything. Not that he would have, of course. Because no one was here and he was perfectly safe.

Growing uncomfortable at the complete lack of sound coming from his surroundings, Roman glanced at the time. 

4:27.

Great.

Knowing from experience that both he was not going to be able to go back to sleep, and that he didn't really want to go back to sleep either, Roman grabbed his phone and the tangled earbuds lying on the floor. 

Checking his room once again, Roman stood up, turned the main light on, and then returned to his bed. Just so he could see everything. Not that there was going to be anything to see, of course, because he was safe. They were all safe. 

Roman jumped as he heard movement from outside his door. A cold feeling settled in his chest. Gripping his phone tighter in his hand, he slowly moved towards his door.

It was nothing to worry about, it was probably just that Virgil, Logan or Patton had to get up early today. It was fine.

Roman pretended his hand wasn't shaking as he fiddled with the lock on his door, a relatively new addition to his room, wincing at every small sound.

Taking a deep breath, Roman slowly opened his bedroom door. Creeping down the corridor, he emerged slowly into the main area of the apartment to find…

"Virgil?!"

His brother jumped, almost dropping the spoon in his hand, before he looked up and rolled his eyes as he saw Roman. "Yeah. It's me. I do live here, you know?"

Roman let out a breath. "Yeah, I know, I just… sorry for making you jump."

Virgil shrugged. "Whatever. Why are you up so early?"

"I don't know, why are you up so early?" Roman snapped back.

Virgil jumped. "Woah, dude. Aggressive, much? I have work, remember?"

"Oh. Right."

Roman walked across the room and grabbed the cereal box in front of Virgil. He figured he might as well have breakfast given that it didn't seem as though he was going to fall back asleep any time soon. After making a bowl of cereal he sat down at the table across from Virgil and they both ate in silence.

"So…" Virgil began. "Did you and Logan have fun screaming at each other last night?"

Roman grimaced. "You… You heard that, huh?"

Virgil snorted. "Dude, the entire  _ street  _ heard it!"

"Oh. Well I am sorry if we woke you up."

Virgil sighed. "Its fine I just… wish you guys would stop arguing all the time."

"Yeah… so do I…" Roman sighed, twirling the remnants of his cereal around his bowl.

Virgil raised his eyebrows. "Then why don't you just… not argue?"

"It's not that simple, V."

"I don't know, it seems pretty cut and dry too me. You guys just cut it out!" Virgil snapped.

"I'm doing nothing wrong!" Roman snapped back. "Logan started it!"

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Really? You sound like a four year old."

"He did!" Roman replied defensively. "I mean if he hadn't stopped being a superhero with us in the  _ first place  _ there wouldn't have been a problem!"

"Not this again," Virgil groaned.

Roman clenched his fists. Why was no one understanding the seriousness of this?! "What do you mean 'not this again'?! This is important! We're out there  _ saving people's lives _ ! That should be the priority!"

"I'm not having this conversation with you again if you're not willing to listen to anyone else, Roman." Virgil stood up and turned to leave. 

"Really? You're taking  _ Logan's  _ side?!"

Virgil turned back around, glaring at him. "I'm not taking  _ anyone's  _ side! I've said multiple times I don't want to be involved in your stupid arguments!"

"They aren't stupid, Virgil, this is a matter of life or death here! Don't you care about the people of this city at all?! Especially after…" Roman cut himself off as he realised what he was saying. There were two topics that you did not bring up in their flat, one was Deceit, and the other was everything Virgil had done as Anxiety.

"Especially after what?!" Virgil snarled.

"N-Nothing!" Roman sputtered. "Nothing, I just meant-"

"I know exactly what you meant," Virgil muttered, before turning to leave.

"I'm sorry, Virgil, I shouldn't have brought that up." Roman grabbed his brother's arm. 

"Whatever, it's fine. And yeah, you're right, maybe I do owe the people of this city something. But I don't think they're going to be too keen on the idea of being saved by the man who up until four months ago was attacking them every few weeks." Virgil smiled bitterly.

Roman grimaced back. "I'm sure they'll come around eventually."

Virgil sighed. "Yes Roman, I'm sure the public will forgive me for getting away scot-free after murdering their friends and family."

Roman winced. While he always hoped that Virgil would be able to greet the public and be received the same way Creativity, Logic and Morality were, he knew that unfortunately that was unlikely to be the case in reality. There were too many people that Virgil had hurt. Although of course it hadn't been his fault at all. It was all Deceit's fault. His brother would never  _ actually  _ hurt someone.

"Well, I should probably get going." Virgil began to clear away the remnants of his breakfast. "Oh, also, I'm going to be out tonight. With Remy, you know, the dude from my work?"

Roman went cold. "Again?"

Virgil glared at him. "Yeah. Why, is that a crime?"

Thoughts flashed through Roman's head of Virgil stumbling into Deceit's basement, blood dripping from his stomach. "A-Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yes," Virgil spat.

Images of Virgil dying alone in an alleyway as Roman lay obliviously on the couch on the other side of the city flashed through Roman's head. Thoughts of Virgil using his powers to defend himself causing everyone to realise who he was. Memories of Virgil being stabbed by Roman's sword in the middle of their battle and falling to the floor as Roman desperately tried to pretend it wasn’t real because no matter how much he wanted to stop Anxiety he never wanted to kill him and… "Well, maybe it's not a good idea."

"Why?!"

"It might not be safe!" Roman exclaimed. 

"I can protect myself!"

"Can you?! Because at the moment your powers seem to be all over the place! How can we trust you not to…" Roman trailed off.

"Not to what?!" Virgil snarled.

"Listen, I'm not saying that you'd ever hurt someone on purpose but… well it's not like you haven't made mistakes before and-" Roman cut himself off. This was definitely not the right time to bring something like this up.

Virgil turned away from him and took a deep breath. "Roman I am trying to be nice to you but you are making it  _ really  _ hard this morning," he said, his hands gripping the table until his knuckles were white.

Roman backed away slightly. "I'm sorry, V, I shouldn't have-"

Virgil glared at him.

The two brothers stood in silence for a minute, before Virgil sighed and turned back around. "Trust me, dude, I'll be fine. And besides, I'll be with Remy."

Electing not to pick up on Virgil's 'trust me' statement, Roman instead focused on the other part of Virgil's statement that made him uncomfortable. "And how do you know this 'Remy' is trustworthy?"

"He's my friend!"

"Who we've never met and know next to nothing about!" It wasn't that Roman  _ wanted  _ to be suspicious, but Virgil had known this guy for well over a month and they still hadn't met him!

"Well maybe I would be more okay with you guys meeting him if it wasn't for the fact that every time the four of us are in the same room someone's having a fight!" 

If Virgil thought he was going to be able to change the topic of conversation onto blaming Roman, Logan and Patton he had another thing coming. "But how are we meant to be okay with you hanging out with this guy if we don't know anything about him?!"

"I don't need your fucking  _ permission  _ to be friends with someone! I can decide if someone is trustworthy or not on my own!"

"Can you?! Because that worked out so well with your last 'friend'," Roman snapped.

"That's it! I'm fucking done!" Virgil yelled. "I have to get to work." He stormed towards the door.

Roman felt the panic descend, desperate not to end another conversation with his brother in this way. "Wait, Virgil, I'm sorry! That's not what I meant-"

"No, that's exactly what you meant. Bye, Roman. I'll see you later." Virgil slammed the door behind him.

"Fuck," Roman muttered. He wasn't  _ trying  _ to make everyone so angry! He just wanted to keep his brother safe! And the city safe! Yes, the threat of Deceit was gone, but that didn't mean that there was no longer any type of threat in the city. Or that another supervillain that the police would not be able to deal with would turn up soon.

"Is everything okay, Ro?" Roman jumped as he heard Patton whisper from the doorway from his room.

"Y-Yeah." Roman laughed weakly. "Yeah, Virgil and I were just… talking… I apologise if we woke you up."

"What were you guys fighting about? You seem to be doing that a lot these days." 

"Yeah, well, we've got a lot to fight about."

"Like?' Patton asked softly as he began to walk further into the room.

"Nothing, its dumb. It's just, he's out _again_ tonight and whenever he leaves we have no way of knowing what he's doing or if he's _safe _and…" he sighed. 

Patton hugged him. "It's okay, Roman. I'm sure he'll be alright."

The two stood in silence for a minute.

"You don't think…" Patton began timidly. "You don't think maybe we've done something to make him angry at us, do you? It's just that he always wants to be  _ away  _ from us, you know? And I've tried to talk to him but he never wants to and… well, I don't know…"

"I don't know, I… I'm just worried about him. Wouldn't he be safer if he just stayed here?"

"Well I think he wants to do a bit more with his life than just stay here forever."

It's just… we don't know what he's  _ doing  _ when he's out there. It's not that I don't trust him, it's just that… I would just prefer to know what he's doing, that's all."

"I understand that, Roman, but I'm sure it will all be fine." Patton smiled. "Now are you sure you're okay, kiddo?"

Roman grinned back, hoping it didn't look as fake as it felt. "Yes, not to worry, Padre! Your resident prince is feeling as radiant as always!"

Patton nodded. "Well, if you're sure." He glanced at the clock. "Are you sure you don't want to go back to sleep? It's very early and your audition isn't until eleven."

"Don't worry about me, Pat." Roman dismissed, shuddering slightly at the thought of going back to sleep. "You should get some sleep though. We have to be as ready as we can to defend our city from anyone who would try to harm it!"

"Yeah..." Patton turned to go. "Roman, about what Logan was saying…"

Roman tensed.

"I was just wondering… I mean do you think maybe he has a point? Now that there isn't a supervillain threat that the police can't handle?"

"No," Roman snapped. "I think he's just a coward who's not willing to use an ability he's been blessed with to try and save people's lives and is looking for an excuse not to do it."

Patton nods. "Okay. I just thought I'd… check."

"The people need you, Patton. You have a duty to help them, we all do! If we have a power like these we have to use it!" 

Patton's eyes widened. "Yes, I… you're right." Patton nodded at him, the determination in his gaze clear. "We have to help people. It would be selfish otherwise."

Roman sighed in relief. For a moment he'd worried that maybe he'd lost Patton as well. "I'm glad to hear you agree, Pat. For a second I thought you were going to abandon me too."

Patton threw his arms around him. "Of course not, Roman. None of us will."

…

"I hate him!" Virgil growled as his stormed into the Starbucks he was working in. "He is such a fucking  _ dick  _ sometimes and I can't fucking  _ stand _ him!"

"Honestly babe, I would feel a lot more sorry for you if I wasn't currently suffering through the worst hangover in all of existence so if you could lower the volume a bit that would be  _ real  _ nice." Remy groaned, his head face down on the counter.

Virgil winced. "Oh, right. Sorry dude. Are you sure you're up to go out tonight?"

Remy lifted his head up. "Bitch, please. It's going to require a lot more than this to stop hanging out with you."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder how you're still alive."

Remy grinned. "So you up for tonight, then?"

Virgil sighed. "Yeah…"

"Yeah?"

Virgil slumped down next to Remy behind the counter. "Roman's pissed off about it. And is being a dick about it."

"Roman… he's your brother, right? The one you live with?"

"Yep."

"He doesn't control your life, you know? You don't, like, have to ask his  _ permission _ to do stuff."

Virgil laughed, thinking back to their last conversation. "Try telling him that. I think if he had his way he'd have me locked in the flat twenty four seven. You should have heard his reaction the first time I told him I was getting a job!"

Remy tilted his head. "You do realise that's not… a normal thing, right?"

Virgil sighed. Sometimes he wished he could just tell Remy everything, without fear that his only friend would run screaming out of the room and call the police. "The circumstances are…different. You wouldn't understand."

Remy looked at him incredulously. "Whatever you think these  _ circumstances  _ are doesn't change the fact that these roommates of yours are, like, ridiculously controlling!"

"They're just looking out for me!"

"By freaking out every time you're out of their sight for more than two seconds?! That's  _ weird _ , babes!"

Virgil jumped slightly as his phone vibrated. It was a text from Patton.

'Hey, kiddo. Roman mentioned that you were planning on going out tonight? I hope we haven't done anything to make you angry at us, kiddo. We're here for you!'

Virgil sighed. He wished the others would just realise that sometimes he needed space without thinking that it was something against them, or that he was secretly plotting an evil scheme behind their backs.

"Why would you be angry at him?" Remy asked, reading over Virgil's shoulder.

Virgil grimaced. "Pat gets worried sometimes that I'm trying not to hang out with them as much because I'm angry at them. Which I'm not I just… need some space. And I don't really think Patton understands that."

"Patton’s one of your brothers friends, right? The happy all the time but not actually happy all the time one?"

"Yep."

Remy looked at him strangely. "Have your brother and his friends always been this… controlling?" 

Virgil flinched. It would be so much easier if he could just  _ tell  _ Remy what was going on. "They aren't  _ controlling _ , they're just… you know all that stuff I told you? You know about… about  _ him. _ Well they get quite overprotective because of… all the stuff that happened."

"Right…"

Virgil jumped slightly as the door opened. "Come on, dude. We are actually meant to be working right now."

Remy rolled his eyes. "Sounds boring."

Virgil smiled fondly. "Get on your feet, you dick."

Remy flipped him off.

"Yeah, I love you too." Virgil rolled his eyes and then turned to the customer giving the two of them a weird look. "Hi, what can I get for you today?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I would love it if you left a comment telling me what you thought :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's been so long. I am definitely planning on increasing my upload schedule, this chapter just took me a while because I've had a difficult couple of weeks.
> 
> TW: Violence, vague description of blood/injuries

Logan sighed as he glanced at the time. While in most households the late evening was an indication that the occupants of said household should be getting home and sleeping, that was unfortunately not the case for Logan's friends. Virgil had once again left the house to hang out with his friend from work, and Roman and Patton were once again trying to live out their childhood dreams of being superheroes by… trying to be superheroes. Logan would have been surprised that he seemed to be the only sensible on in their group of our, if not for the fact that he had discovered this fact over and over ever since him and Patton had met Roman.

He glanced over at Patton, who was sitting on the other end of the table. He had hoped he would be able to convince his friend not to go out tonight, but so far he had had no such luck.

"We should really get going." Roman nodded his head towards the door. "The city’s not going to save itself!"

"If you just left it alone the city would be perfectly able to…" Logan muttered.

"The city's not going to save itself!" Roman spoke, louder this time, blocking out Logan's unconvinced muttering. "I'm going to go get dressed, I'll be out in a minute."

Roman bounded over to his room, evidently looking forward to the night ahead. Why that was the case, Logan had no idea. Unfortunately the joys of putting yourself in unnecessary possible harm were lost on him.

Seeing Patton begin to rise out of his chair and follow Roman's lead reminded Logan of why he had been so against the idea of the two of them going out. Logan reached out and grabbed Patton's arm.

"Listen, Patton, before you go… Can you please just think for a minute before doing this again? I don't want Roman forcing you into doing something dangerous that you don't want to do."

Patton smiled assuredly, sitting back down at the table, his hand settling into Logan's. "Of course I want to do it! If I have the opportunity to help people like this, I have to take it."

Logan sighed. "How many I times do we have to have this conversation? You don't have an obligation to sacrifice living your life and risk your safety just because you happen to have developed powers!"

"Yes I do! With great power comes great responsibility, Logan!"

"Are you… are you really using a Spiderman quote in our serious life or death discussion?" Logan asked incredulously 

"You bet I am!" Patton grinned.

Logan smiled fondly. Then the cold feeling settled in his stomach again. "I just don't want you getting hurt."

Patton squeezed the hand Logan didn't realise was still holding Patton's. "It will be okay, Logan. I  _ promise. _ "

The two sat in silence for a minute. Logan could hear the kitchen clock ticking loudly through the silence, a reminder that he couldn't keep Patton here much longer. And that he had no way of knowing whether or not the time he had just spent with Patton would be the last time he would ever see him.

Logan met Patton's eyes.

"Just… if you think something's going to go wrong, promise you'll call me or text me or something."

Patton smiled. "It will be okay, Lo, just like it always is."

Logan sighed. "I know but… just in case…"

Patton nodded. "Just in case."

…

"So what were you and Logan talking about?" Roman asked casually once him and Patton had exited their apartment.

"He's worried about me," Patton replied.

Roman ignored the flicker of anger he felt, knowing that Logan had once  _ again  _ gone behind his back to try and convince their friend to abandon Roman and stop helping people.

"Is that why he was holding your hand?" Roman asked with a smirk, which widened as he watched Patton's face turn bright red.

The two turned the corner of another street and continued to walk down it.

"You know there has got to be a better way to find bad guys then by just wandering around the city until we happen to see something," Roman mused.

Patton laughed. "It always seems much easier in movies for superheroes to find bad guys."

"Well it helps that they usually have lots of archenemies." Roman paused for a minute, before realising what he'd implied. "N-Not that I'd want  _ us _ to have anymore or course! Two was quite enough!" He laughed.

Patton nodded. "I guess if movies showed all the waiting they wouldn't be as interesting."

"I don't know, I think it would be great if when the next superhero movie is released it's just two hours of that superhero hanging around in an alley for two hours for something to happen."

"I'd certainly watch tha-"

"Fuck!" They both jumped at the shout. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck  _ shit _ ...!" 

Jumping at the sound, the two of them quickly rounded the corner to see a young woman lying on the side of the road, clutching her wrist. 

"Are you okay?" Patton asked, raising his voice slightly in an attempt to be heard over the steady stream of swear words leaving the woman's mouth. 

"Do I look like I'm fucking okay?! Crap, I think I've just sprained my wrist! Stupid fucking uneven sidewalk I don't have time for this shit I..." 

She trailed off as she got a good look at the two of them. 

"Oh! You're those superhero guys." 

"Indeed I am, fair maiden. Allow me." Roman reached down to take the woman's hand and help her up, before realizing half way down that he was reaching for the hand attached to the woman's very swollen wrist and snatching his hand back. She gave him a very unimpressed look. 

"Here, let me give you a helping hand." Patton chuckled at his joke before reaching down and placing a hand on her wrist. 

"What the fuck are you... oh that's much better." She sighed as Patton healed her wrist. "Thanks." 

"Always happy to help!" Roman beamed. 

"You did nothing," she shot back. 

"I... gave... moral support..." 

She snorted. "Yeah, I guess you aren't exactly going to be able to help me and my sprained wrist with a sword. Unless of course you want to attack the sidewalk for me and make it pay for what it did to me?" 

Roman laughed. "I would be honoured to avenge you, my lady, but I do not think my sword would come out of the encounter very well, and I would hate to damage it so soon after I acquired it." 

"You got a new one? What was wrong with your old one?" 

Flashes of Anxiety, of Virgil, lying on the ground in front of Roman covered in blood flitted through Roman's mind. 

"N-Nothing, it was just... time for a change..." Roman cleared his throat."Anyway, if there's nothing else you need, we'll be on our way. We have a city to protect, after all!" 

She smirked at him. "What do you actually have to do? I mean now that Deceit and Anxiety have been defeated? Other than wandering around healing the wrists of people who've been attacked by the sidewalk?" 

Firmly ignoring the mention of Deceit, Roman gasped dramatically. "I'll have you know that we have plenty to do! We-" 

"Oh, thanks for that by the way." 

Patton and Roman looked at each other in confusion. 

"Thanks for... having plenty to do?" Patton asked hesitantly. 

"No, you idiot, thanks for saving the city!" 

"Oh, right. Well, you're welcome, kiddo." Patton smiled. 

"Kiddo?" The woman turned to Roman. "Why kiddo?" 

Roman shrugged. "I just go with it." 

She laughed. "I'm pretty sure we're about the same age. Unless you can stop yourself from aging and you're actually 256." 

Patton grinned. "Not as far as I know!" 

"But seriously, thanks for that. The city is just so much better now, so much safer and friendlier now that those two monsters are off the street." 

Roman felt like he had been dunked in cold water, and he noticed that the smile had slipped off Patton's face. "Well, yeah, but... it wasn't just us... Anxiety helped us too... He turned against Deceit..." 

The woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah but that doesn't mean anything. That psycho just realised he was on a sinking ship and jumped off it before he was dragged down too." 

Patton fiddled with the sleeve of the cardigan around his shoulders. "That's... that's not what happened, though." 

She scoffed. "He's a mass murderer. People don't just come back from something like that. He's probably just biding his time-" 

"No he's not! He's good!" Patton yelled. 

The woman laughed harshly. "That's not exactly how I'd describe him." 

"So?! You don't  _ know _ him!" Patton protested desperately.

"And you do?!" She was looking at them in confusion now, probably unsure as to why two superheroes were defending someone who they should see as their enemy. "Did you somehow develop a friendship during the times he was attacking you with shadows and murdering innocent people?!"

"Its complicated…" Roman muttered.

"Don't give me that bullshit it's a simple yes or no answer! You know I've read the news stories and the conspiracy theories about what happened, but I never thought you'd actually be that stupid! If you think for one second that that  _ monster  _ cares for  _ any  _ of you-"

"Don't you dare talk about him like that!" Roman snapped. He may not always get along with Virgil but he was his brother and there was no way he was going to let this random woman who had  _ no  _ idea what he'd been through to verbally abuse him.

The woman looked at them in disgust. "Great! Good to know that when Anxiety gets tired of hiding and starts killing people again I'll know who to blame!"

She stormed away from them. Patton and Roman stood in silence for a minute, unused to negative attention from their usually adoring public.

"We should probably…" Patton gestured vaguely in the direction of another road, coincidentally going in the opposite direction the woman had stormed off in.

"Yeah...yeah! We have a city to protect, after all!"

…

After two hours wandering around and trying to avoid another interaction with a less than supportive member of the public, Roman was feeling rather cold. Having stolen, well technically it had been  _ borrowed _ , the outfit from the local theatre he often performed at, he had found it suited more for being under stage lights than being outside for a rather extended period of time during the night.

Patton seemed to be in a similar situation, having actually put on the cardigan he usually had draped around his shoulders.

Rounding the corner of another street, each side lined with closed or shut down shops, the two were met with the sight of four men gathered together next to a wall. While there was nothing particularly wrong with that, the fact that they see currently trying to force open the window of a shop with a crowbar definitely was. Roman resisted the urge to shout "Finally!". He wished Logan luck trying to come up with a reason why he and Patton were doing more harm than good and would never actually end able to stop any criminals now! He just had to work out a way to actually get the men's attention, as they clearly hadn't noticed either him or Patton yet.

Roman cleared his throat, causing the men to look up.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." The man standing in the middle of the other three rolled his eyes. "I am not dealing with this bullshit right now."

"If you could, er, step away from the house. Please?" Roman said in what he hoped was an authoritative voice.

"'Please'?" The man laughed. "I must say it's nice to meet someone with such lovely manners. You're really working hard to keep up that Princely aesthetic, aren't you?"

Roman forced a smile. "Step away from the window," he said, this time a lot more confidently. 

"Ooh..." One of the other men in the group said. "We are just so scared."

"Shut up, Derek," the first man said, before he pulled out a gun and aimed it at the two of them. Roman had a split second of panic over the fact that there was a literal gun being pointed at him and his friend, before relaxing as Patton quickly created a shield in front of the two of them. 

"Stupid fucking superheroes," the man muttered as he glanced at the shield. "Whatever. You may have your fancy shield but you can't stop us while you're hiding behind it. So why don't you run along and leave stopping crime to the professionals."

Roman fumed, glaring at the group in front of him through Patton's shield. The man was starting to sound annoyingly like Logan. Which for some reason was making him much angrier than the fact that this man was currently threatening to shoot him. 

"Well, luckily for you I don't need a shield." Roman growled, stepping out from Patton's shield and advancing towards the group.

Immediately the man shot Roman in the chest, causing him to smirk as the bullet bounced off. Thank you, super-strength. "Yeah, I think you'll find that won't work on me. I kind of have this superman type thing going on, so-"

One of the other men shot him again, causing him to wince slightly. Just because his skin was very difficult to damage didn't mean it didn't hurt when he was shot. "You know, I really like this outfit, and I would very much appreciate it if you didn't get holes in it."

The man who appeared to be the leader of the group whispered something that Roman unfortunately didn't hear. The one with the crow bar stood away from the window as the other two drew knives from their pockets. 

"Oh yes, Roman. Antagonise the hardened criminals. Yes I'm sure that will go great," he muttered to himself as the two with knives ran at him. 

As the first reached him, he punched him hard in the face. The man dropped to the floor. Roman smirked slightly at the ease in which he had taken the man down, before jumping as he felt a knife held to his back.

"I think you'll find me quite difficult to stab." He grinned before twisting around, ready to punch the other man straight in the face.

"Fuck!" He yelled as the man sprayed pepper spray in his face, causing him to fall over clutching his face.

"Looks like you don't have super-strong eyes as well, you dick!" The man yelled. 

Roman flinched as the man kicked him, his power weakening as his body focusing on the burning pain in his eyes and face. 

...

As soon as the two of them rounded the street corner and came across the four men, Patton knew they were in trouble. These men were professionals, and while he and Roman had powers, they were still outnumbered two to one, and only one of them could go on the offensive.

Reaching into his pocket, Patton selected the emergency contact on his phone.

After a few rings, he heard Logan's voice faintly from his pocket. Quietly sighing in relief, he decided to move slightly closer to Roman in the hope that Logan would hear the encounter without him having to take out his phone and alert the men in front of him.

Suddenly one of the men in front of him drew out a gun, and Patton raised a shield to protect him and Roman.

He really hoped Logan understood what was going on. Patton watched as Roman stepped out from behind the shield and advanced towards the men. He heard the sound of a gun being fired.

While he knew hypothetically that Roman's super strength protected him from most of the impact of bullets, that did not mean that he was okay with watching someone shoot at one of his best friends. The hope that maybe someone would hear what was happening and call the police was decreasing as each sound passed without him hearing a siren. There was at least still the possibility that Logan would have heard the gunshot and understood the danger they were in.

"You know, I really like this outfit, and I would very much appreciate it if you didn't get holes in it."

Patton tensed as he watched two of the criminals advance towards Roman. He moved forward, before his stomach dropped as he realised the other two were heading towards him.

He held his shield in front of him as the two men approached.

"Let's see how strong that shield of yours is," one of the men smirked before slamming the crowbar down on his shield. 

Patton felt the vibrations travel up his arm, but held his ground. The man raised the crowbar again, but before he could bring it down Patton heard Roman cry out.

Patton's heart stopped as he saw Roman lying on the ground, evidently in a lot of pain.

"Roman!" Patton yelled, dropping his shield and running towards his friend.

Bang.

Patton's shoulder exploded in pain.

"Shouldn't have dropped that shield of yours," the leader of the group said, before pointing his gun at him again.

…

"You know," Remy shouted over the loud ears from the speakers in the bar they were currently in. "I really don't understand why you won't do this with me more often."

"Really?" Virgil stared at him incredulously. "You don't think the loud noises and abundance of strangers might turn me against the idea?"

"And yet here you are, enjoying yourself, having fun…"

Virgil smirked. "Is that what I'm having?"

Remy gasped. "Honey, you know my self-esteem can't handle criticism!"

"Oh. I'm sorry, I-"

"No, ma-am! You don't need to apologise, honey!" Remy reached over and bopped him on the nose. "I could never be angry with someone who uses lavender shampoo, which we both know is the only valid scent for anything."

Virgil blushed. 

"And I must say I was impressed with your use of the word 'abundance'! Is it possible Virgil is evolving beyond using hissing as his primary way of communicating?!" Remy laughed, and Virgil couldn't resist the smile that crept onto his face as he did so. 

"Yeah, um… So basically one of my friends has started having a 'word of the day'. It's mainly because my brother's an idiot and he's trying to-"

Virgil jumped slightly as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He rolled his eyes as he saw Roman's ID.

"Speak of the devil." He muttered as he glared at his phone. "Yes? What do you want?"

"Virgil?!" Logan's voice came from the phone.

"What are you doing on Roman's phone?"

"He always leaves it at home after the fourth time smashing it while fighting and my phone’s still connected with Patton's. Anyway that's not important right now- Virgil, I think something’s gone wrong." 

Virgil immediately went cold. "What happened?" 

Remy looked at him over his sunglasses.

"I don't know, but Patton just called me and he said he would call if there was a problem!"

"Roman and Patton are out doing their…" Virgil glanced at Remy. " _ Thing, _ right?"

"If by thing you mean recklessly running around the city getting into situations that are too dangerous for people with no formal training, then yes."

"And you want me to…"

"Go and find them." Logan paused. "Virgil?! Virgil I think I just heard a gun being fired from Patton's phone! Virgil!"

"Remy, I'm really sorry about this, but I've got to go." 

"What's going on?" Remy looked at him in confusion. "Virgil, is everything okay?"

"I… I'll explain later!" Virgil ran towards the door.

"Where are they now?" He shouted over the music at Logan as he ran out of the door.

"I'll send you their location. And they said tracking their phones was a stupid move. Anyway, I'm on my way too but I called you because you're much closer."

He glanced at their location. Relief hit him as he saw that they were only a few streets away. 

Virgil started running.

…

Patton fell to the floor. He felt a burning pain in his leg, and looked down in horror as he saw the blood blooming through his pants. Crawling towards Roman, he hastily placed his hands on his face in an attempt to heal him.

"You know," the man who had shot him laughed. "I thought you too should be more of a challenge. You seemed quite impressive when you were fighting Deceit and Anxiety. But there's a difference between fighting people with powers and fighting people who actually know how to fight."

As the man walked closer, Patton focused more on Roman's face. 

"Are you okay, Ro?" he whispered.

Roman nodded as Patton's healing began to allow Roman to see again. His eyes widened as he gazed at Patton.

"You're bleeding! P- Morality you need to heal yourself!"

"You know," one of the men continued. "I know what your problem is. Logic was always the strongest out of the three of you, wasn't he? I mean, he certainly was the leader. I guess without him you guys can't really do anything useful."

Patton tensed as he saw anger flicker over Roman's face. The last thing the two of them needed was Roman's notorious temper causing him to do something rash that the two wouldn't be able to get out of. Though he supposed that was why they were in  _ this  _ situation in the first place.

"Now the real question is, what am I going to do you the two of you?" The man raised his gun again, pointing it at Patton's head. Patton raised his uninjured arm in an attempt to shield himself, but he was too drained after healing Roman and the woman they had met a few hours ago. 

"You know, villains should really learn not to monologue."

Patton looked up in shock as he saw Virgil emerge from the shadows.

The four men looked at him in confusion. 

"Who the fuck are you?!" 

Virgil's gaze fell on where Roman and Patton were lying on the ground. Patton shivered at the fury in Virgil's eyes as he saw the blood covering Patton, and Roman still clutching his face. Patton reached back to try and continue healing Roman.

Virgil laughed coldly, before pushing his arms out, causing the surrounding shadows to fly out and push the four men to the ground.

"I'm Anxiety."

Virgil smirked as he watched the men's expressions go from confusion to understanding to terror. "Oh, I'm sorry, was I not wanted at this exact second?"

"I-I thought you were in prison?" One of them said.

"Sorry to disappoint. Are you okay, P… Morality?" Virgil asked, still glaring at the four in front of him.

"Y-Yeah… I-I'm okay…" Patton replied, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and leg that was telling him he was definitely not okay.

"So," Virgil began conversationally. "Which one of you shot my friend?" He began to tighten his shadow's grip on the four men. They struggled more desperately, crying out. "Hey, er… Anxiety?" Patton asked nervously. "Do you think maybe you should not hold them quite as hard because-"

"Your friend?!" one of them laughed. "Since when were you  _ friends _ with these pathetic little-" The man was cut off as Virgil flung him against a wall, knocking him out. 

A siren sounded in the distance. Patton sighed in relief. "Anxiety, we need to go."

Virgil continued glaring at the men in front of him, who were still struggling against his shadows.

"Anxiety?"

The shadows continued to tighten around the men, causing them to cry out.

"Anxiety, stop! That's  _ enough _ !" Patton yelled. Virgil looked up.

"Why should I? They hurt you! They hurt Ro-  _ Princey _ !"

"Morality's right, Anxiety! We need to leave!" 

Patton turned around and resisted the urge to cry in relief as he saw Logan walking up to them. 

"Lo…"

"Morality!" Logan cried out as he saw the blood on Patton's shirt. "What happened to you?!"

"I-Im fine…" Patton replied. "W-We need to leave."

Logan helped Roman to his feet. His face had mostly recovered from the pepper spray, but judging by his silence he hadn't recovered from the incident itself.

"Thanks, Logan," Roman said softly.

Logan glared at Roman. "This is your fault," he snarled.

Virgil walked over to them. Three bodies lay behind him. Patton hoped they were unconscious. 

"We should probably get out of here before the cops show up. I don't really want to be arrested."

Logan nodded. "I'll help Patton. Virgil, if you could assist your brother? I can't even  _ look  _ at him right now."

Logan picked him up gently and began to carry him back to their apartment, with Roman and Virgil following behind.


	4. Chapter 4

The walk back to their apartment was silent. Roman and Virgil followed behind as Logan stormed ahead, Patton shaking slightly in his arms. It was only once they were safely inside with the door closed and Patton laying on the sofa that Logan spoke again.

“So,” he began softly, but with an anger in his expression that made Roman shiver, “What happened?” 

“Well…” Roman began, unsure as to how exactly he was going to get out of this without Logan punching him in the face.

“Actually, no, let me guess.” Logan began to walk towards him.

“Hey, Logan, maybe…” Virgil muttered.

“Stay out of this!” Logan snapped. “So, lets analyse this situation, shall we? You went to do something dangerous, after I had specifically warned you not to. You went up against people who have been fighting for years with no professional training, after I had specifically told you not to. You dragged Patton into something he didn’t want to do, after I had specifically told you not to! And what happened? Exactly what I said would happen!"

Roman flinched. “I- I didn’t mean… I didn’t think that-“

“Exactly! You don’t fucking think, do you? You just had to get involved, you just had to be the hero!”

Roman clenched his fists. Why was Logan acting like this was his fault? It wasn’t as if  _ he _ had been the one to shoot Patton! 

“At least I did something!” Roman exploded. “Where were you when Patton was hurt?! Oh yeah, you were here, because you can’t be bothered to go out there and help people-“

"Oh don't kid yourself!" Logan screamed. "When we agreed to become superheroes it was for a purpose! We had people to defeat that couldn't be defeated by anyone else! But there aren't any supervillains to defeat anymore! You just got too enamoured with the 'glamour' and attention that comes with being a superhero and you don't want it to stop, even if it hurts the people you're meant to care about!"

"How  _ dare _ you-"

“ENOUGH!” Virgil screamed. Roman spun around in shock. Shadows surrounded his brother. “Maybe you guys should spend less time fighting and more time focusing on your friend who is currently bleeding on our sofa, trying to heal himself with powers that he’s evidently already drained today and could maybe benefit from our help!”

Roman glanced down guilty at his injured friend. If he had just listened to Logan…

“Patton? Patton I’m really sorry-“

“Get out!” Logan spat. “You aren’t going anywhere near him!”

Roman’s anger returned. “How dare you! If y-“

“Roman!” Virgil yelled again. Roman turned around to face his brother. “Why don’t we go into your room for a bit?”

“I’m not leaving him! I want to help!” Roman looked down at Patton again, who was healing his two bullet wounds at a worryingly slow rate.

“You’ve done more than enough!” Logan snarled.

Virgil reached out and dragged Roman into his room, before slamming the door.

“I wanted to help!” Roman growled.

Virgil glared at him, and began to pace the room. “We both told you this was a bad idea, Roman. We told you to just leave it to the police! I get that when you started it was different. When you first started doing all of this you were  _ necessary,  _ because the powers that I have and that… that Deceit had were the kind that the police couldn't fight against. But there aren't any supervillains for you to defeat anymore, Roman! You aren't  _ needed  _ anymore!" 

"Not needed?!" Roman glared. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?! This is who I am Virgil, I  _ help  _ people! Without that, without my  _ powers _ , what use am I?!"

Virgil sighed. "That's your problem, Roman. You've been dedicating everything you have into 'saving' people and 'being a hero', but the people don't  _ need  _ you anymore! The only one who still needs this is you! Because for some insane reason you're basing your self worth on how many 'bad guys' you can 'defeat'!"

"I… I'm not… that's not what I'm doing!"

"Don't try and lie to me, Roman! I'm rather an expert on the subject!" Virgil snapped, before sighing as he met Roman's eyes. "Look, I don't want to fight. I just… I'm worried about you. And about Patton.

Roman looked away. "I-" His breath hitched. "I really didn't mean for him to get hurt."

Virgil smiled grimly. "I know, Roman."

"Logan's  _ really  _ angry." He whispered. "I didn't… I didn't mean for this to happen! Patton's  _ my _ friend too! It's not like I  _ wanted  _ him to get hurt!"

"I know."

Listen, maybe just… stay in here for a bit, yeah?" Virgil said hesitantly.

Roman smiled grimly as his brother began to walk towards the door. "Yeah… Wait, Virgil?"

Virgil turns back around.

"Do you… do you think Patton hates me now?"

"Patton?" Virgil scoffed as he walked over the Roman's desk and sat down on the chair.. "Patton wouldn't blame someone for getting him hurt if they were driving a van that had 'van for running over Patton' painted on the side of it!"

Roman laughed half-heartedly. 

"Logan on the other hand…" Virgil continued. Roman looked away. "He did… I mean he specifically warn you against doing exactly what you did because he thought you would get hurt, and then you did! So… maybe give him some space…"

Roman glowered at the door to his bedroom. "Well maybe if there had been more people  _ with  _ us, this wouldn't have happened."

Virgil tensed in front of him. "Was that, er… just in case I'm jumping to a conclusion here was that directed at just Logan or at me as well?"

Roman laughed. "Oh don't worry, it certainly wasn't directed at you!" He shuddered slightly as he thought back to earlier that night. "I don't think you using your powers is exactly the best idea, so-"

"I'm sorry, what?" Virgil growled.

"I just meant, er… I mean you know what you did tonight, right?" Surely Virgil realised that while Roman obviously knew he was on their side, using his powers, given what they were and he used them, would never he a good thing?

"What I did tonight was save your sorry ass because you were beaten up by four men that I could take down in less than 30 seconds!" Virgil snarled.

How dare he?! "Yes, but-"

"No! I came in here trying to be supportive, because I know you need someone to support you, even though you've been stupidly reckless and just like Logan has warned multiple times in the past it turned out badly! And now Patton is hurt, BECAUSE OF YOU! And I've tried to help you feel better, and instead you attack me because you STILL DON'T TRUST ME?!"

"That's not what I said!"

"You didn't have to say it!" Virgil snapped. "Its written all over your face! And maybe I did go too far with those men, but at least  _ I _ can protect my friends and keep them safe!"

"GET OUT!" Roman screamed. 

"OH, WITH PLEASURE!" Virgil screamed back, before shoving Roman's chair to the floor and storming across the room. He glared at Roman one last time before slamming the door.

Roman clenched his fists as he glanced around his empty room. How dare Virgil say those things to him!

He really didn't understand this. He wasn't the bad guy! He was helping people! Logan and Patton had both agreed to become superheroes with him two years ago, so why was everything suddenly changing?

_ "These two supervillains, who we have been told go by Deceit and Anxiety have killed six people since they first appeared a month ago. The police have as of yet been unsuccessful in arresting them. We now go to Janet Hutchinson, who is reporting at the place where Anxiety killed two people last night…" _

_ "I hope they manage to stop them soon." Patton sighed as he glanced at the TV. _

_ Logan looked up from his book. "If you are referring to Deceit and Anxiety, then unfortunately I doubt it, judging by their lack of success so far." _

_ Roman smirked. He had been waiting for an opportunity like this. "So… what you're saying is that this is a situation that the police can't handle?" _

_ Logan looked at him in confusion. "Yes…" _

_ "But they  _ do _ need to be stopped?" _

_ "Yes…" _

_ " _ And _ someone with powers is the  _ only _ one who would have a chance at stopping them?" _

_ Logan narrowed his eyes. "Yes…" _

_ Roman grinned at him. _

_ Logan's eyes widened as he realised what Roman was suggesting. "No! No, absolutely not! _

_ Absolutely not what?" Patton asked. _

_ "Oh, come on! You said it yourself that the police can't handle it! And clearly there's no one else in the city who has powers and who's willing to fight against them, or they would have done something by now. That just leaves us!" _

_ Patton's eyes widened. "You mean you think  _ we  _ should fight them?" _

_ "Exactly!" Roman jumped up. "Just think of it, Patton. The three of us, saving the day, rescuing the damsel in distress and-" _

_ "Getting killed by to very powerful murderers?" Logan asked dryly. _

_ Roman stuck out his tongue. "Patton has  _ healing powers! _ " _

_ Logan rolled his eyes. "I do see your point. In the past those with powers are generally defeated by people  _ with  _ power, not those without." _

_ Roman grinned. _

_ " _ However! _ " Logan continued, giving Roman a pointed look. "What you're suggesting would be  _ extremely  _ dangerous!" _

_ "But if we could help people, Logan, we  _ have to!"

_ "I… I suppose, if we're careful…" _

_ "Yes!" Roman yelled. "I knew you'd see my side. And don't worry, I promise you, nothing will go wrong!" _

Roman sighed as he collapsed onto his bed. He hoped Patton was okay.

…

Logan glared at Roman as he retreated with Virgil into his room. The moment the door closed, however, he diverted his attention to what was more important.

"Patton?" Logan asked softly. "How are you feeling?"

Patton groaned from the sofa. "I-I'm fine, I just… I'm having a bit of trouble healing…" He coughed.

"You must of overused your powers. I recommend you get some rest and hopefully your powers will speed up a bit." Logan eyed Patton's injuries carefully. They had begun to heal, but they were healing so slowly that he could barely tell anything was happening. "Perhaps I should take you to hospital." Logan moved to get up.

Patton grabbed his hand. "Its okay, Logan, I'll be fine. I promise."

Logan sat down on the sofa next to where Patton was slumped, still gripping his hand. "That's what you said to me earlier today, and that certainly didn't turn out 'fine'!" 

He ran a hand through his hair. "Patton I was so scared! You called me and I didn't know what was going on and I was  _ terrified  _ that Virgil and I wouldn't get there in time… that we would be too late…"

Patton smiled at him. "But you didn't! I'm alright, Logan."

"That is not the word I would use to describe the situation." Logan looked over to the door to Roman's bedroom and glared at it. "If  _ Roman  _ hadn't-"

"Please don't blame him for this, Lo." Patton said softly. "You know that he didn't mean for any of this to happen. I'm  _ not  _ angry at him. I don't blame him for this, so you shouldn't either."

Logan sighed. "Patton, this is his fault! He's the one who has been forcing you to continue being a superhero, even though everything you guys are doing is something the  _ police could be doing better _ !"

"But I need to  _ help  _ people, Logan!"

"No, you don't!" Logan shouted. "You are important too, Patton! And I know that you feel like you owe the world something, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice yourself and your life and your happiness! You have to think of yourself sometimes, Patton!"

"Logan, I… you don't understand. I  _ have  _ to do this!" Patton said desperately.

"You don't  _ have _ to do anything!"

"I was given the gift to be able to heal people and make them better! There are so many people I can help and improve the lives of! And with these powers comes a duty to do that! If I didn't use them I'd be a terrible person!"

"I'd rather you were a terrible person then a dead one." Logan replied softly.

The two fell into silence. 

Logan checked Patton's injuries again, sighed in relief as he noticed that they were beginning to close.

"I'll go and get you some water." Logan walked to the kitchen. As he came back, glass of water in hand, he heard yelling coming from Roman's room. He hoped Virgil was making Roman realise what he'd done. How Roman could continue to defend his actions he did know.

"Thanks, Lo." Patton smiled at him as he took the glass from Logan's hand.

"If there's anything else you need, just let me know. I"-" 

Bang. 

The two of them looked up as Roman's door slammed. Virgil looked up at the two of them, seething with anger.

"Virge? Are you okay, kiddo?" Patton asked.

"Roman's a dick." He snarled, before walking over to his room and slamming the door.

The two sat in silence a moment longer.

"Maybe… maybe you're right." Patton said slowly.

"What?"

"I thought Roman and I were doing the right thing, but… we haven't actually  _ done  _ anything in the past few months and… I don't really want to get hurt again…"

Logan didn't think he had ever felt so relieved. "So you'll stop? You'll stop being Morality?"

"Y-Yeah, I… I guess…" Patton sniffed. "I understand it's the right thing to do but… what if people need us, Lo? I don't want people to get hurt because I was selfish and I-"

"You aren't being selfish, Patton." Logan said firmly. "You're being smart. And if there is ever a situation that the police can't handle that we  _ can,  _ then we will do everything we can to protect people. But unless a situation like that presents itself, unless we have  _ no other choice  _ but to fight, then we have to think of ourselves, yes?"

Patton leaned into Logan and rested his head on Logan's shoulder. "Okay."

…

Virgil slammed the door to his room. He really hated his brother, sometimes! He had been trying to help him, for fucks sake!

He sat down on his bed, took out his phone and checked his messages. 

5 texts and 2 missed calls from Remy. Fuck.

He guessed that suddenly running off with no explanation might have been a bit worrying for his friend.

He clicked on his texts.

'Is everything okay?'

'It was nice seeing you today :)'

'Text me when you get home, yeah?'

'You okay, Virgil?'

'?'

He pressed the call button. 

Remy picked up after one ring. "Virgil?"

"Hey, Remy," Virgil sighed, the exhaustion from so much arguing and using his powers more that he had in the last four months finally catching up with him now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" 

"Nope! I'm just… taking a walk outside." Remy paused for a moment. "Anway, you left in quite a hurry earlier tonight. You okay, babe?"

"Yeah yeah… one of my friends, he… he got hurt, so… yeah I had to go and pick him and my brother up. And it was kind of my brother’s fault? I mean he didn't hurt Patton, he's one of the people I live with by the way, but he got them into the situation they were in. And yeah and then Logan got angry at Roman and Roman got angry with Logan and then with me and… it's complicated."

"Certainly sounds like it. If you want to stay at mine tonight you can."

Virgil considered the offer. "Thanks but I'm pretty sure my brother would get even more annoyed if I did that so… I'm probably just going to try and get some sleep. But I'm okay, don't worry."

"Glad to hear it, girl! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Virgil grinned. "Yeah! Looking forward to it."

"Goodnight!"

"Goodnight," Virgil smiled as he hung up the phone. Feeling a lot more relaxed after his conversation with Remy, he elected to actually try and get some sleep.

He just hoped it wouldn't be too awkward between the four of them in the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

"Dum, da da da da da da dum, da da d-" Virgil jumped as heard Dr Picani's voice from just outside the door of his office.

"Yeah, I um… I'm not really in the mood for that today, doc." Virgil sighed.

Dr Picani slipped into the room. "I see. Well, Virgil, what seems to be getting you down?" 

"Sorry to ruin your entrance." Virgil muttered, looking at the floor. He really did not feel up to this after everything that had happened the night before. 

But he had forced himself out of bed because unfortunately there were definitely some things that needed to be discussed.

"Not to worry, Virgil, not to worry." Dr Picani reassured as he flipped through his notebook. "So, where we left off last time-"

"Actually, um… some stuff happened yesterday that I kind of want to talk about."

"Mm hmm. Mm hmm." The doctor scribbled in his notebook for a few seconds, before throwing his pen down and smiling and Virgil. "So, what have got for me?"

"Um…" Virgil began, unsure how to exactly to start. "Before I start I should probably just let you know that everyone's fine now."

The smile slipped off Picani's face. "That doesn't sound good."

"No, uh…" Virgil laughed awkwardly. "Yeah… so you know how I told you about the whole thing with Logan and Roman fighting over Roman and Patton being superheroes because Logan was worried one of them would get hurt? Patton got hurt. He's fine though!" Virgil said quickly as he noticed Picani's panicked expression.

"But, er… long story short I went to rescue them and in the process I… I used my powers and sort of almost ending up killing four people… I didn't, though! And then Logan yelled at Roman for getting Patton hurt and Roman and I yelled at each other because I used my powers to save Roman and Patton from four criminals but apparently I 'treated them a bit too harshly' or something even though it shouldn’t matter because I was  _ saving their lives  _ and then… and then I went to bed and then woke up this morning and came here."

Picani tilted his head slightly in thought. "I see."

Virgil's chest tightened. "A-Are you angry too? Because I swear I didn't  _ mean  _ to go that far I just wanted to protect Patton and Roman!"

"It's okay, Virgil. Can you take a few deep breaths for me?" Picani asked calmly.

Virgil nodded. He breathed in and out, his breath shaking slightly. 

Silence settled over the room, the only sounds being his breathing and the ticking of a clock.

"Better?" Picani asked.

"Y-Yeah…" 

"Good. So what do you want to talk about?"

Virgil looked at him in astonishment. "... _ That!" _

Picani smiled. "I thought as much. But what is it about what happened that has you so distressed?"

Virgil sighed. "My powers… the way I used them…"

Picani gestured for him to continue.

"I-I don't know! I just… did I do the right thing? Was I wrong to use them?"

"I think that is something you have to decide for yourself, Virgil. Did  _ you  _ feel that it was wrong?"

"I…" Virgil looked around. "I don't know! I mean I was using them to do a good thing! That means what I did was good, right? But then Roman thought it was a  _ bad  _ thing. So maybe what I did was bad. I did almost kill those people. But they weren't  _ good  _ people. But is it  _ ever  _ okay to kill someone? Even though I didn't  _ actually  _ kill someone. I just… I don't know whether or not I would have stopped if Patton hadn't been there! And I know that I  _ hurt  _ them, even if I didn't  _ kill  _ them."

Picani nodded. "So it isn't  _ you  _ that had a problem with your actions, it was your brother?"

"Yeah…" Virgil realised. "Although I'm sure Patton and Logan aren't particularly happy about it either, they just haven't talked to me about it yet. It's just… I don't feel guilty about it… about what happened and how I used my powers, but Roman clearly thinks I should. And I don't know which one of us is wrong. It's not like I've demonstrated an exemplary moral code in the past."

Virgil paused for a minute, the events of the previous night flashing through his mind. 

How easy it had been to revert to the persona of Anxiety, a person he had promised he would never be again.

"What if Roman's right? What if my powers are just too dangerous? I've been telling you about my loss of control, right? About how I start to draw in shadows when I'm angry or upset?"

Picani nodded. "It has happened one of two times in my office, yes. No harm done, though." He smiled, before his face became more serious. "Virgil… If you continue to treat your powers like the dangerous force you clearly see them as, they will  _ always _ be dangerous. The best way to gain more control over them is to accept them as a part of you." 

"Maybe I don't want to! I never asked for these stupid powers! If I didn't have them I never would have ended up with Deceit in the first place!"

Picani eyed him over the notebook in his hand. "So you might say you blame your powers for your misfortune."

"Yes… no… I get that Deceit is obviously to blame for everything he did to me, because he was the one that did it. But… if I didn't have powers it wouldn't have happened…"

"Hmm…" Picani span around once in his chair. "Aha!" he yelled causing Virgil to jump.

"I believe there is a certain character who we could quite easily relate to our current dilemma."

"Yay…" Virgil rolled his eyes. 

"That's the spirit!" Picani grinned as he pointed to a figure of Danny Phantom on his shelf.

"So," Picani clapped his hands together. "Have you watched Frozen, Virgil?"

Virgil groaned. "Oh come on, really?"

"So you haven't seen it?" 

He sighed. "Of course I have. It's one of my favourite disney films."

"Mine too! The love between two sisters, the amazing music! The-”

"The knowledge in the back of your mind that when Elsa dies Olaf will die too because the magic be gone…"

Picani froze. "Actually Patton and I have collectively decided that no one from that film can die, especially not cute little snowmen."

"Even Prince Hans after the emotional trauma he inflicts on Anna that will haunt her for the rest of her life?" Virgil smirked.

"Funny you should mention that, Virgil, as I believe that what happened with Anna and Prince Hans can be related quite well to you and your relationship with Deceit."

"Fuck. I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Yep! But first we should address the idea of Elsa's powers. After her powers led to her sister getting hurt, she was afraid of them. As were her parents, which I'm sure you can relate to."

Virgil shuffled in the sofa uncomfortably. 

"Elsa feared her powers, and never learned how to use and control them. Now, tell me Virgil, did that work out well?"

"No…"

"And what was it that our favourite magical troll rock thingys warned Elsa?"

"That 'fear will be your enemy'?"

"Exactly! Frozen demonstrates to us the dangers that fearing one’s powers can have. Over the course of the film Elsa learns the good that her powers can do, but she only does this but  _ using  _ them. Now I'm not suggesting you try and create a castle made of shadows on the side of a mountain, but using your powers instead of shutting them in will allow you to associate your powers with something other than leading to you and other people getting hurt."

Virgil blinked twice. While he usually didn't understand the doctor's use of cartoons in his sessions, the parallels drawn between his and Elsa was something he couldn't help but relate to.

"Wow. That was actually kind of helpful." 

Dr Picani smiled at him. "That's what I'm here for, Virgil. Now, for another example of this why don't we take a minute to discuss Jeong-Jeong the Deserter from Avatar the Last Airbender. Now he…"

...

By the time Roman had finally forced himself to get out of bed that morning and rejoin society, Virgil had already left for his therapy session. That unfortunately meant he had been left in the apartment alone with Patton and Logan, both of whom were currently sitting at the table when he walked in.

"Morning…" Roman said awkwardly, testing the waters. The glare he received from Logan informed him that he had definitely not been forgiven.

"Hey Roman." Patton smiled, although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "We, er… we need to talk."

Fuck. 

Roman tried not to panic.

What could they want to talk about?

That was a stupid question, of course it would be about what had happened last night.

Was Patton dying?

Had he not been able to heal himself?

No, that wasn't it, he looked fine.

No, this was about Roman.

What were they going to say?

That they hated him?

That they wanted to stop being friends with him? 

That they wanted him to move out of the 

apartment? 

That they never wanted to see him again?

"Um… yeah, sure. What's up, Pat?" 

"Roman…" Patton sighed. "I… I don't think I want to be a superhero anymore."

Oh.

"I… I see." Roman looked away. "This is… this is because of last night, isn't it? Because you were injured and it was  _ my  _ fault and…"

Patton placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Roman I want you to know that… this isn't because I'm angry at you. I'm  _ not. _ It wasn't your fault that I was hurt-"

Logan snorted, causing Roman to flinch.

"Logan!" Patton warned.

"But if you don't blame me then why…" Roman asked desperately.

"I don't… I don't want to get hurt again. And Logan-"

There was his answer.

Roman rounded on Logan. "So this is your doing. Getting him to abandon me too!"

"I'm not abandoning you, Roman!" 

"I'm just trying to make sure Patton is  _ safe _ !"

"And what about the people out there!" Roman gestured to the window. "Don't they deserve to be safe too?"

Logan sighed. "As I have said many times, if there is ever a time that the police cannot deal with a problem, and we can _ ,  _ then we will help you. But if the police  _ can  _ save the problem, or if it is something that we have no better chance at fixing then the police do, Patton and I  _ will not be a part of it. _ "

"And if something like that happens, I promise you Roman, we will help _ . _ " Patton squeezed his hand. "But until then I… I'm going to take a bit of a break."

"O-Okay…" Roman didn't know what to say. All he knew was that Patton was abandoning him too, the same way Logan had three months ago.

There was a moment of silence.

"Patton, we should probably get going. Roman, we'll see you later." Logan nodded at Roman and began to head towards the door.

"Oh. Right. Where are you guys going?"

"We're going to see a movie!" Patton smiled. "Do you want to come with us-"

"No, he doesn't," Logan answered from the door, glaring at Roman.

"But…" Patton glanced between Logan and Roman. 

"It's fine, Pat. You go," Roman muttered. "Have a great time."

_ _ …

"Hey, I'm back!" Virgil yelled into the apartment as he returned from his therapy session.

"Hi." Virgil heard Roman's voice coming from his room, but he noticed his brother didn't actually come out and try and engage him in conversation like he usually did.

Clearly Roman wasn't going to apologise to Virgil about what he said any time soon.

Virgil walked over to the kitchen and began to make himself some lunch. He reached for a knife, before stopping, remembering Picani's words from earlier that day.

Slowly, he began to gather shadows around him. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, he sent them forward and willed them to pick up the knife. As he watched the shadows raise the knife into the air, he grinned. "Not so different from telekinesis, is it?"

Virgil took a seat, and used more shadows to open a door to the cupboard.

"Why Logan doesn't use his powers to do everything for him I'll never know."

Picking up bread, he slowly began to make a sandwich.

The knife started to shake a bit as he began to butter the bread. While he had used his powers for a much longer period of time before, he had never done something that required such precise movements.

"Come on, Virgil.  _ You  _ control the shadows, the don't control you. You can do this," he muttered go himself.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Virgil jumped and the knife clattered to the table. He turned around to face his brother, who was standing at the door to his room with a furious expression on his face.

"I'm making a sandwich," Virgil snapped. "Is there a  _ problem  _ with that?"

"Not when you use your  _ hands _ !" Roman exclaimed. 

Virgil clenched his fists. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he snarled, his anger increasing as he realised exactly what his brother had such a problem with.

Roman gestured vaguely to where there was an unusually large amount of shadows clustered around Virgil.

Virgil raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to say what he clearly wanted to say.

"You're… you're using your powers," Roman muttered.

" _ Well done _ , Roman! Quite a brilliant observation!" Virgil began to clap very slowly, smirking as he saw the fury grow on Roman's face.

"Why are you using them?!" Roman exploded. "They're dangerous!"

The shadows that were already beside Virgil began to increase, responding to his anger. He had not spent months coming to terms with the fact that his powers weren't just a negative force just for his brother to go and undo it all with his outdated views or right and wrong! "All powers are dangerous, Roman! That doesn't mean  _ you  _ three can't use  _ yours _ ! Why should I be any different?!"

"You know exactly why!" Roman yelled. 

"I want you to say it! Go on, Roman, say it to my face!" He screamed.

There was silence.

Roman opened his mouth to say something, before closing it again. Smart.

Virgil sighed. "I thought you  _ trusted  _ me, Roman! You said that you realised that my past was behind me. But clearly you still can't see past it!"

"Virgil," Roman sighed. "I  _ do  _ trust you, I promise you! I don't want to fight. It's just that your powers are dangerous!"

"Not if they're used for the right reasons! Not if I learn to control them!" Virgil defended.

"You very clearly proved that you can't control them!" Roman sputtered.

Virgil growled. "If this is about what happened yesterday-"

"Of course this is about what happened yesterday! That was not okay!" 

Virgil gritted his teeth. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't realise me  _ saving your life _ was such a terrible deed!"

"That was not what I was trying to say and you know it!" Roman yelled indignantly.

"No, I know  _ exactly _ what you were trying to say! And I'm sorry that my methods upset you, poor little baby, but maybe if you hadn't gotten one of our friends hurt while  _ playing  _ superheroes it wouldn't have happened!"

"You know maybe Logan has some ground to stand on, but I'd say yelling at me about being the cause of one of our friends being hurt is a bit rich coming from you!" Roman spat.

Virgil froze. "Excuse me?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Patton, Logan and I didn't just magically turn up in Deceit's basement by  _ ourselves _ , now,  _ did we _ ?!"

Virgil felt cold. He didn't know whether he wanted to cry or scream. "Yeah," he laughed harshly. "Yeah,  _ those  _ are the words of somebody who  _ trusts _ me."

"I  _ do  _ trust you, I just-"

"No, no, I see what this is," Virgil snarled. "You're  _ scared  _ of me!"

Roman's silence was the only answer Virgil needed. He smirked cruelly. "You  _ are,  _ aren't you!?"

Virgil stared at the shadows that had accumulated behind him, before dragging them forward and surrounding Roman and himself in darkness.

"Virgil!" Roman yelled. "Virgil stop, what are you-"

Virgil withdrew his shadows and threw Roman to the floor. Fury flashed in his eyes.

"You're just like our parents," he hissed. Roman's eyes widened. "They were scared of me too. You sound just like them. 'Don't use your powers, Virgil, they're dangerous! You're going to hurt people! Why can't you be more like your brother, Virgil?'" he mocked. 

"Virgil-"

"Oh, I'm sure they'd be  _ very  _ proud if them heard you now. Well  _ fuck you _ !" Virgil yelled, his voice cracking slightly at the end. He thought he'd left this behind, he thought he was getting better. But Roman just  _ had  _ to come along and reopen his old wounds.

"Virgil, I… I didn't mean it to sound like that-" Roman stammered.

Virgil pushed past him and grabbed his phone. "I'm going out."

"Where?"

"Somewhere that you  _ aren't _ !" He didn't have a fucking clue, but he would be damned if he was going to spend one more second being yelled at by arsehole of a brother.

"It's not safe, Virg-"

"Oh don't worry, Roman. I have my  _ extremely dangerous  _ powers to protect me!" Virgil yelled over his shoulder as he opened the door.

"Virgil-"

"I'm  _ leaving _ !"

"Virgil  _ please _ !"

Virgil turned around. He ignored the pain he felt as he saw the tears gathering in his brother’s eyes. Roman didn't deserve his sympathy. 

"P-Please! Patton… It's my fault he got hurt… it's my fault and… and now he's abandoning me! And Logan... he won't even look at me! Virgil, please, you're all I have left!" 

For a moment, Virgil wanted to undo everything that had just been said. To run back and apologise to his brother and let everything be okay. 

But he couldn't forget how Roman felt about him. And apparently neither could Roman.

"I'll see you later, Roman." Virgil turned around and slammed the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Roman had tried to pretend that Logan flat out refusing to let him join him and Patton when they went out hadn't hurt him. He had tried to pretend that Virgil hadn't just stormed out on him after accusing him of being just like their parents. But he had found that a challenging task when sitting alone in an apartment which served as a constant reminder that the three people who should have been there, who he _wanted _to be there, weren't. Because he had driven them away.

So he had left the apartment in a hurry, and now found himself absentmindedly walking through the streets of the city. He had hoped a walk would provide him some kind of distraction, but his thoughts kept coming back to the events of the day. 

As if making Logan angry by getting Patton hurt hadn't been enough, he had then gone and pissed off Virgil as well!

He glanced around at his surroundings. The shops were quieter during the day, but there were still people around. A quick scan revealed there to be five others roaming the streets. An elderly couple, a woman carrying several shopping bags, a man walking four very adorable dogs and a teenager who definitely should have been in school.

He allowed himself to relax slightly, reassured by the fact that unless any of them had a hidden power, which according to Logan was statistically unlikely, he would be able to take them in a fight. The lack of an immediate threat allowed him to focus on the more important task of admiring to four dogs dragging the poor man assigned to walk them down the street.

Patton would like the dogs, he mused, before frowning as he registered the thought of his friend. He began to speed up his pace as thoughts of Patton lying on the ground of a dark street covered in his blood raced around his mind. His fault.

He should have protected him.

He should have kept him safe.

That was his job!

But it was also his job to keep the rest of the city safe, which he couldn't do without the support of Patton and Logan! Why were they acting like he was the bad guy? He was the one who wanted to help people!

Someone tapped on his shoulder. He spun around, fist raised, ready to attack if a threat had presented itself.

The man who had placed a hand on his shoulder jumped back, eyes wide. 

At the man’s reaction Roman quickly lowered his fist. He hadn't realised he'd raised it. He was Roman right now, not Creativity, it wasn't like someone was going to randomly attack him in the street.

"I'm not usually one to say no to a fisting but I generally don't go for it on the first day." The man said with a grin.

Roman blinked.

“...What?”

The man in front of him gestured wildly to the hand Roman had lowered.

"Oh...S-Sorry about that… you, er… took me off guard a bit." He apologised awkwardly. He hoped the man didn't take it personally, as he couldn't exactly explain that he had been rather on edge ever since… 

The man laughed. "Well I do tend to have that effect sometimes." 

“Right…"

He stuck his hand out. “Hi! I’m Remus.”

Roman eyed the man to try and work out if he'd seen him before. He decided he probably hadn’t, as he would definitely have remembered the moustache.

"Nice to meet you. I’m-”

“Roman. Yeah, I know,” Remus interrupted.

Roman felt a flash of panic. “How?”

Remus laughed. “I saw you in a play of course! Why, where else would I have recognised you from?”

“Oh, right!” Roman allowed himself to relax slightly. At the realisation that this man had recognised him due to his acting career, he grinned. His dream of becoming a world famous actor was unfortunately not something that he had accomplished (yet!), but being recognised as an actor was certainly a step in the right direction!

“I just  _ loved  _ seeing you perform in Beauty and the Beast. All your acting choices… you have so much  _ creativity _ !” Remus smirked slightly, as if he’d just told an inside joke. 

“Thanks!” Roman beamed in pride. “I was so excited to get the role, it's one of my favourite Disney movies!”

“Mine too! The brilliant way beastiality, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome, sending people who are different to asylums and the dangers of mob mentality are wrapped up together into a kids movie is really fun!”

That caused Roman to pause. “Yeah… I guess that’s one way of looking at it… I, er… tend to look at the more positive aspects of the film, but-”

“Who’s saying they  _ aren’t  _ positive aspects of the movie?”

Roman laughed awkwardly. “Um… it depends who you talk to I guess.. My brother likes looking at the darker side of disney films too. Maybe you guys would get along.”

Remus smirked. “Somehow I doubt that…”

The two of them jumped slightly as the song Anaconda started playing rather loudly from Remus’s pocket.

“Oh, sorry!” Remus pulled out a battered phone with a dick drawn on the back with tippex out of his pocket. “Hello?”

Remus’s seemingly constant grin grew wider in reaction to whatever the person on the other line of his phone call was saying. “Oh I’m just having a chat with a new friend of mine! He’s a lot of fun!” 

Remus winked at Roman. Roman tried not to feel uncomfortable. He was starting to believe that was a constant feeling when talking with Remus.

“Ugh!” Remus groaned into his phone. “You are  _ no  _ fun! When I said I was a fan of  _ discipline _ this was  _ not  _ what I had in mind!” He ended the call and sighed dramatically. “My apologies, but apparently my _ dear friend _ doesn’t understand the concept of fashionably late. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to find a way to  _ make it up to him _ .” He smirked suggestively.

Remus grinned and began to walk away. “It was nice to meet you Roman. And good luck!”

Roman tilted his head in confusion. “With what?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “The acting of course!”

“Right. The acting. Bye! It was…nice to meet you.”

Remus waved at him before walking quickly down one of the side roads and then out of sight.

Roman stood for a minute, slightly confused as to what had just happened. He didn’t think he’d met someone quite as… interesting as Remus for a long time.

Deciding that returning to the apartment would probably be the best way to avoid anymore weird interacts, he turned around and made his way back home.

Once there, he slumped down on the sofa and switched on the TV.

“In our latest news, it appears that yet another person with powers has taken to our city streets.”

Roman nearly dropped his phone at the words coming from his television. Ignoring the slight shake in his hand, he reached frantically for the remote and hurriedly turned up the volume.

“I’m reporting live from the scene where just a few hours ago all the people in this bank fell unconscious, and it was robbed. The way that the thief entered the vaults is unknown, but security footage suggests that he has powers which allowed him to send everyone to sleep, and then somehow withdraw the information needed to unlock the vaults from the manager’s mind. After nearly five months free from Deceit and Anxiety, it appears that a new threat has emerged. There are questions as to whether Creativity, Logic and Morality will be able to protect the city once again, due to their increasingly common absence and the fact that they have still not confirmed Anxiety’s whereabouts despite frequent calls from the public for them to do so. In f-”

Roman slammed on the off button. He didn’t need to hear anymore criticism about his alter-ego. Besides, there wouldn’t have to be any criticism for much longer! It wasn’t as though the others could refuse to help him when presented with such a serious threat. 

Granted the villain in question had not actually hurt anyone yet, and had merely put some people to sleep, but who knows what he would do next! Deceit hadn’t done anything big the first time, in fact it had been Anxiety who had made the first appearance, and Deceit had only joined Virgil after Roman had first gotten involved. That had then led to Logan and Patton getting involved.

It was only a matter of time before the current threat escalated, and there was no way the others wouldn’t see that.

Right?

…

“That was so much fun!” Patton grinned at him as the two of them exited the cinema.

Logan smiled softly as he watched the way Patton’s eyes sparkled as he gushed over the movie they had just seen.

Patton gasped. “Logan! Logan look! There’s a dog over there!” He grabbed Logan’s hand and began to run down the street. 

Logan sighed as he was dragged along behind his very excited friend. He was starting to regret not forcefully confiscating some of the sweets Patton had consumed during the film.

“Hi! Hello!” Patton beamed at the woman he had spotted walking a very fluffy dog.

“Hi…” She smiled back hesitantly.

“Nice to meet you!” Patton waved. “So…” He began, bouncing on his feet slightly.

“He wants to pet your dog.” Logan said flatly.

“Oh! This is Mrs Fluffybottom.” She smiled down at her dog.

Patton knelt down. “Hello!”

Logan smiled fondly as he watched Patton interact with what was admittedly an adorable animal. It was just too precious to process.

“Aww, look at his little yawn!” 

Logan was drawn away from Patton and the dog as he heard a text alert from his pocket. He checked his phone to see a single text.

It was from Roman and was a link to a news article.

Reassuring himself that it wouldn’t be anything bad otherwise Roman would have called him instead of just sending him an article, Logan clicked on it. 

The headline read “Bank robbed by man with superpowers! Is the city in danger?”

Logan’s heart sank. “Shit.” 

Patton looked up in confusion. “Is everything okay, Logan?”

No, everything was not okay. He couldn’t believe this. He had just convinced Patton to give up defending the city, and now Roman had the perfect ammunition for dragging Patton, Logan himself and possibly even Virgil back into danger. Perfect. Just perfect.

“We need to get home.”

Patton jumped up at that. “Is someone hurt?”

“No. I’ll explain on the way. It was nice to meet you.” Logan nodded at the woman before walking briskly down the street, Patton following behind him. 

“What’s going on?”

Logan started scanning the rest of the article.

“A bank was just robbed by someone with superpowers. The police have no idea how to stop him and a lot of the public are appealing for the help of Logic, Morality and Creativity.”

Patton faltered slightly. “Oh.”

Logan ran a hand through his hair.

“Did he… did he hurt anyone?” Patton asked hesitantly.

“No. He just sent everyone to sleep.” Logan shoved his phone back into his pocket. “He’s not a supervillain, he’s a bank robber! It doesn’t matter whether he has powers or not, he is  _ not  _ our responsibility.”

Patton frowned. “Roman’s not going to see it that way, is he?”

Logan grimaced. “No. He’s not.”

…

Roman leapt off the sofa as he heard the door open.

“Did you get my text?” Roman asked Logan as he walked inside, seeing no point avoiding what everyone wanted to discuss.

Logan held the door open for Patton and then closed the door with force.

“The answer’s no, Roman. We said we weren’t getting involved again, and we meant it. It’s not going to happen.”

Roman was silent for a minute. He had honestly not thought Logan would be so firm about this. Did he really not see how important this was?

“You’re kidding me, right?!” 

“Roman… we did say that-” Patton began cautiously.

“I can’t believe this! You...you  _ promised  _ me that if there was a situation like this you would help me handle it!” Roman exclaimed. He was not willing to admit that Logan and Patton were in any way justified by not helping him protect the city against day to day criminals, but he could concede that what they did was dangerous and that the existence of the police meant that their involvement in some situations was not an absolute necessity. But this situation here was  _ exactly  _ what they had all agreed their responsibility was.

“I did  _ not. _ ” Logan snapped back.

“Yes, you did! You said that if there was someone with powers you would help me fight against them! Well, here he is, Logan!” Roman yelled, waving frantically at the TV screen which had been paused on a fuzzy security camera image of the thief, who had currently been dubbed Sleep by the media. Not a particularly good name if you asked him, but to be fair it was a pretty accurate description of what the man could do. 

"No, I did not!” Logan defended. “I promised you that if there was a situation that the police couldn’t handle and that we _ could  _ handle, I would help you! But we aren't going to be any more effective against Sleep’s powers then they would be!”

“You don’t know that!” 

“Oh, I’m sorry Roman, I didn’t realise you had the ability to resist being put to sleep by a man who managed to use his power on over thirty people at once!” Logan snarled. 

“That doesn’t… It doesn’t matter what powers he has! The point is that he  _ has _ them, which means he’s our responsibility! You said yourself that if there was this kind of threat you would-” 

“Sleep is not the kind of threat I was referring to and you know it! I am more than willing to get involved if there are people's lives at stake and we are  _ clearly _ the best option, as I have demonstrated multiple times in the past. However, a bank robber who doesn’t have a single casualty to his name is  _ not  _ something that I signed up to deal with!"

“He hasn’t hurt anyone  _ yet _ !” Roman shouted.

“And I see no reason to believe that that will change!”

“So you’re just going to fool yourself into thinking he’s not that big a threat?! Because you underestimated Deceit too, and look where that got us!”

Logan flinched. 

“Roman!” Patton shouted. “How dare you even  _ think  _ about trying to blame what happened on Logan!”

Logan and Roman looked at Patton in shock.

“I… I didn’t-” Roman began defensively.

“If you thought about anyone but yourself for even one minute, you’d see how much Logan has done for all of us!” Patton continued. “He’s the only reason we haven’t all fallen apart after everything that we’ve been through.  _ He _ was the one who convinced Virgil to do therapy with Emile and helped him adjust after his time with Deceit, and he has constantly watched out for all of us and made sure we’re okay! He spent days researching how best to help people recover from the kind of situation we were in after everything happened to try and help us, but all you could do was laugh it off and tell him that you were fine! Well guess what Roman, you  _ aren’t _ ! You aren’t fine, none of us are, but instead of dealing with your problems you’ve been taking it out on all of us and hindering our progress in the process. And after everything we went through for this city, we have the right to actually focus on ourselves for once if we want. And if you were actually a good friend you’d acknowledge that. But you're not! You've treated all three of us awfully! You've constantly tried to guilt trip me and Logan into joining you again which we have demonstrated over and over we don't want to fight, you keep attacking and judging Virgil for trying to recover from what happened to him, and you've hurt all three of us in the process!"

The three of them stood in silence as Patton finished his speech.

Logan was still looking at Patton in shock. 

Patton seemed slightly shocked himself at what he’d said.

“I…” Roman began, but for once he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have a defense. He didn’t have anyone to back him up. He was alone.

And he felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach as he realised that not one thing Patton had just said had been wrong.

He blinked forcefully but it did little to stop tears build up in his eyes and begin to run down his face.

“I-I need to…” His shoulders began to shake.

Patton’s eyes widened. “Oh god, Roman… I… I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that I…”

"N-No! It’s fine.” Roman dismissed, frantically wiping his eyes. “N-No, if that's what you think, that’s what you think. You’re entitled to your own opinion…” His voice broke and he trailed off. “I need to go.”

“Roman!” Patton called out.

Roman ran into his room and slammed it shut, being sure to lock it.

“Roman!” Patton pleaded as he attempted to open the door. “Roman open the door! I’m sorry!”

He collapsed onto the floor and curled up into a ball.

He really wished Virgil was here.


	7. Chapter 7

After Virgil and Roman had fought, Virgil had stormed out of the apartment. Every time he thought he was on his way to recovery, Roman found a great way to bring up exactly what he was sensitive about!

Virgil saved Patton and Roman’s lives just the other day, but all Roman could focus on was the fact that he’d used his powers to do so. And as always, their fight had escalated and ended up with Roman once again bringing up every mistake Virgil had made in the past. Obviously this is done generally when people argue, but there is a slight difference between bringing up how someone forgot to do the dishes the week before and bringing up the people someone was forced to kill or the fact that he helped a psychopath abduct his friends.

He understood that what he had done wasn’t something that could just be brushed under the rug and forgotten about, but when he was in the middle of trying to recover the last thing he needed was to have it thrown in his face every time he did something that Roman didn’t like!

And maybe telling Roman that he was exactly like their parents had been a step too far, but to be fair Roman was starting to act more and more like they had and it was not the environment Virgil wanted to be in. Between that and Patton and Logan trying their hardest to pretend that they were absolutely fine when they clearly were not, it was getting very difficult to try and get past everything that had happened when he was reminded every time he could see all three of them trying desperately to hide the pain that he knew he had caused.

Virgil paused as he looked around and realised that in his attempt to get as far away from Roman as possible he had walked straight to the cafe he worked at with Remy. 

Smiling slightly at the thought of seeing his friend, Virgil opened the door. 

Remy was in the middle of serving a customer, but as he looked up to see who had entered he met Virgil’s eyes and grinned. “Virge! You’re here!” He then glanced at the clock and frowned. “You do realise you don’t have to be here for another 15 hours right? I know that being early is good but there is such a thing as being overeager.”

Virgil laughed. “Believe me, I would not be at this shithole if I didn’t have to be.” It was at this moment that Virgil made eye contact with the woman currently buying coffee from said shithole. “Er...have a nice day, ma’am! We’d love to see you again soon.”

Virgil jumped behind the counter as the woman made her way out of the shop and Virgil and Remy were left alone.

Remy smirked. “I don’t think we’re going to see her again soon.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”

Remy gasped. “How dare you!” He grabbed a coffee from the counter and took a sip. “So, apart from my charm and good looks, what else has brought you to my door?”

“My brother…” he sighed.

"Again? Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah," Virgil answered quickly.

Remy peered at him over his sunglasses. "Is that so?"

"...No." 

"What did he do?"

Virgil sat down on the floor, avoiding a small puddle of spilt coffee to his right. "It's complicated."

He wanted to confide in Remy, but it was difficult to do so without telling him everything. Which he did want to do, but he also wanted to remain friends with him, and unfortunately there was no way he could do both. 

“You can’t use that as an excuse every time I ask you anything about your life!”

Virgil paused. “I don’t always do that.”

“Mm-hm?” Remy crossed his arms. “Babe, in the three months I have known you the most personal thing you’ve told me is what your favourite type of coffee is! And even that took me a while to get out of you.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “You literally sent me a text last night saying that I complained about my brother too much!”

Remy tutted. “There is a difference between bitching about your brother to me and actually telling me about what happened.” He paused to think for a minute. “Look, I understand that you’ve clearly been through some shit.”

Virgil opened his mouth.

“Honey if you even think about trying to deny it…” Remy warned.

Virgil sighed but stayed quiet. It wasn’t as if he’d been particularly subtle about the fact that he was traumatised. He had intended to be, but apparently having a panic attack when a customer yells at you was not the action of someone who was ‘okay’.

“I understand that you’ve been through some shit, and I also get that it probably isn’t something you want to talk about.”

Virgil snorted. “Really, what gave it away? I know I’m such an open person, honestly I think sometimes I overshare...”

“Has anyone ever brought up how much you use sarcasm as a coping mechanism?”

“I’m pretty sure my therapist has an entire section of his notebook dedicated to it,” Virgil muttered.

“Anyway… what I’m trying to say is that I get that you don’t want to talk about it, but I’m not going to run away the second you tell me something that isn’t vague as hell. Because apart from the fact that you have a brother who you argue with a lot, you live with him and his friends and you like the colour purple I don’t actually know anything about you.”

“Good.”

The last thing Virgil wanted is for Remy to know anything about him. That was one of the reasons it was so great to spend time with him, because when he was with Remy he was just Virgil, and he didn’t have to think about the past because in Remy’s mind it didn’t exist.

He had a fresh start and he didn’t want to ruin it by telling Remy everything that he had done.

And unfortunately there wasn’t a middle ground between the extremely vague references to Deceit that sometimes came up in conversation and telling Remy his entire life story, because he couldn’t tell Remy anything without telling him about his powers. Once that happened he would very quickly be connected with Anxiety. And that was the last thing he wanted.

"You know you can tell me anything Virge. I'm not going to judge you."

Virgil laughed harshly. "You don't know what I've done, Remy! You can't say things like that because you have no idea about my past!"

“Then let me understand! I can’t help you if I don’t actually know what’s going on!”

“No.”

Remy grabbed his hand. "Look at me, Virgil. I don't care who you used to be. I may not know who you used to be, but I know who you are now! I lo- I care about who you are now! And that's all that matters!"

Virgil froze. It wasn’t that he wanted to keep a ton of secrets from his friend. But he didn’t have a choice.

Remy sighed. "Listen, V, I'm not asking you to tell me anything about what happened to you. I just actually want to know a bit about your life!"

Virgil snorted. "Unfortunately ‘what happened to me’ is pretty much my whole life story."

“Tell me about you and your brother. It can’t have been all bad with him, given that you live with him now.”

“Yeah…” Virgil stared at Remy. The secrets that he had kept bottled up inside of him for months from the person who was probably his best friend threatened to spill out. The longing to have someone to confide in who would only see his side was beginning to outweigh the fear he had. He could modify the story to avoid admitting he was Anxiety, right?

And the opportunity was too good to miss. Patton, Logan and Roman were too close to the situation for Virgil to discuss it with them, especially as they seemed adamant not to bring it up at all. And as helpful as Dr Picani was, sometimes Virgil wanted to discuss his problems in a way where he wasn’t constantly being analysed.

“Roman and I…”Virgil began cautiously. “Roman and I didn’t really get along when we were kids. He was the favourite child, and I was… not.”

Remy nodded. “Well if it helps, babes, you're definitely my favourite.”

Virgil laughed. “Thanks, Rem. I’m over it now, neither of us are speaking to our parents anymore anyway. Roman may have been their favourite, but they put a lot of pressure on him to be the best. I think he was always worried that if he stopped being exactly what they wanted they’d start treating him like they treated me, you know? So anyway… they weren’t particularly great parents.”

“You don’t say?”

“And then... Roman left for college. We had never been particularly close so we didn’t exactly keep in touch. I’m a few years younger, so I was still stuck at home. I had a… secret that I hadn’t told anyone. And they found out.”

“Is this secret one of the parts of your backstory that’s still classified?”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah… And it wasn’t a good secret, so they kicked me out.”

Remy scowled. “Those bitches!”

“It’s okay, Rem. It was a while ago…”

“That doesn’t make it okay!” Remy’s face darkened in anger. “This is a serious, freaking, outrage! Just point me in their direction and I’ll take care of the rest! No one will ever find the bodies!”

Virgil smiled. “Thanks. But seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Anyway, I left home and then I moved in with… him.”

“The bitch?”

“Yeah…”

Remy grabbed his left hand and squeezed it comfortingly. “You don’t have to tell me about him if you don’t want to.”

Virgil looked away and began staring off into the distance. “I… I don’t really like talking about him…”

“That’s completely okay.”

Virgil was tempted to just leave it there, but at the same time he really wanted Remy to know everything. Or at least know as much as Virgil could reveal without also exposing himself as a mass murderer.

He had come this far anyway.

“There isn’t that much to say, really. I lived with him for a few years. He was an asshole. Eventually I realised that, although it took me way too long. Patton, Logan, Roman… they’re the only reason I was able to get away from him. They're the reason I realised I had to get away from him. And so I left and I moved in with them. But… in between that some stuff happened… And what happened to them was my fault and now I’ve fucked up their lives.”

“Virgil, I’m sure you didn’t…”

“I did,” Virgil snapped. “It was my fault.”

“Virge…”

He sighed, “You wouldn’t understand, Rem. I… I can’t tell you what I did to them, but… it was bad.”

Remy squeezed the hand he was still holding again. “I’m sure they’ll forgive you. Again, it is difficult to give advice when I have no idea about the situation, but I’m sure they will.”

“They have. Or at least, they’ve convinced themselves that they have. But the way they all react to my… secret, tells me that they haven’t forgiven me.”

He thought back to his most recent argument with Roman. Roman had convinced himself that he had forgiven Virgil for everything Virgil had done as Anxiety, but the way Roman feared Virgil’s powers made Virgil think otherwise. Roman was still scared of him - so were Patton and Logan. That meant that they hadn’t truly moved on the way they all liked to convince themselves they had.

“Maybe you should discuss this with them?”

Virgil winced. “That’s why I’m here now. Because I tried a ‘discussion’ with Roman and he turned it into an argument about this thing that I can’t tell you about again! And I had just had a really helpful session with my therapist about this and he had really helped me and then Roman just walked into the room and ruined all of the progress I had made in about 3 minutes!”

Remy hugged him. “It's okay, doll. It will all be okay, I promise.” 

Virgil smiled and wiped the tears off his face that he hadn’t realised were there. “I-I’m sorry I’m such a mess.”

“Hey! I happen to like the person you’re calling a mess!”

Virgil laughed. “Sorry.”

Remy smiled at him. “Thanks for telling me, Virge.”

“It’s okay… I’m glad you know.”

“So… do you want to go out with me tonight?”

Virgil blushed. “Go out?”

Remy grinned. “Yep! I’m meeting up with some friends tonight and you just have to come, babes! Given that you ran on me the last time we went out because you received a very mysterious phone call.”

Virgil flinched at the memory of Logan calling him to tell him that Patton and Roman were in trouble. The sight of Patton laying on the ground covered in blood was not going to be leaving his thoughts for a while. 

And then of course there were all the delightful arguments that night had led to...

“Are you okay, Virge?”

“What? Oh.. yeah. Yeah, I’m fine… going out tonight sounds fun!”

…  
After spending the rest of the day with Remy, half of it spent just talking with him and the other half spent working, the two headed downtown. Thankfully Remy chose a different club to the one they had been at last time. 

Remy grinned at him as he dragged him through the crowded club. “Don’t worry about my friends, hon. I’m sure they’re going to love you!”

“Yeah…” Virgil replied uneasily. As nice as the idea of having more friends was, he wasn’t a big fan of meeting new people.

Remy waved at two men standing in the corner. One of them was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, rather like Remy, and the other was wearing a black t-shirt and had purple hair. At least Virgil shared a love of black with them, and purple hair in one of the cases. Not that he could form a friendship with them over a shared love of the colour black.

Remy walked over to them. "Sup, bitches! This is Virgil!" He shoved Virgil in front of him, ruining Virgil's plan to hide behind his friend and not let Remy's friends see him. 

Remy gestured to the man with purple hair. "Virgil, this is Toby."

"'Sup," Toby smirked at him.

"Hi…" Virgil replied awkwardly.

"Hey!" Remy exclaimed. "Back off."

Toby held up both his hands. "I was just saying hello."

Remy scowled at him. "For you that's flirting."

Toby smirked. "It's not like you two are dating, right?"

What? No, of course they weren't. Why would Toby even ask that? Had Remy made it seem like they were? Had he implied that he wanted them to be…

Remy smiled at Toby coldly. "You're hilarious, honey. Anyway," He waved at the second person. “This is Anton.”

Anton peered at Virgil over his sunglasses. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Virgil.”

“Okay, I didn’t like that. Your name now is Timmy.”

Virgil looked at Remy in confusion. 

Remy rolled his eyes. “Stop being an asshole. Just ignore him, Virge. He judges everything.”

“That’s because I’m The Critic, sweetheart!” Anton exclaimed.

Toby rolled his eyes. “You can’t just give yourself a title.”

“Um, I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” Anton snapped.

“Where’s Nate?” Remy asked. He turned to Virgil. “He’s the third one of these freaks.”

Toby laughed. “He’s late. Obviously.”

Anton scoffed. “It’s because he can’t drive properly.”

Virgil nodded. 

“Do you want to go get some drinks, Virge?” Remy led him away. He let out a small sigh of relief.

“Sorry about them. They’re a little much sometimes.”

Virgil laughed. “It's fine. They seem nice. I’m just not great around new people.” 

Remy smiled at him. “Well, if it helps, they definitely like you. Anton barely insulted you at all which is unusual for him.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“And I think you’ll like Nate, once you meet him. He said that he’s two streets away, so he should be here in the next 20 minutes or so.” 

“It’s nice to see that your friends are just as weird as you,” Virgil teased.

Remy gasped. “How dare you! I am normal compared to all of them.” The two of them walked up to the bar. “What do you want to drink, honey? I’ll pay.”

“You sure?”

“Yep. I have the money,” Remy grinned.

“Since when? You complain about how broke you are all the time because you spend all your money on overpriced coffee.”

“Honey, you do not want to see me without coffee. I am such a bitch.”

“So no different from you normally, then,” he smirked.

“Hey! What’s with all the sass, girl?! And after I’ve offered to buy you a drink like the kind soul I am!”

“You still haven’t explained how your cheap ass can afford this.”

“I’ll have you know I have a lovely ass. And I recently came into a… rather large sum of money.”

Virgil looked at him in confusion. “Okay… given that you’re my best friend I’ll pretend that doesn’t sound really suspicious.”

“How kind of you.”

Virgil laughed. “What’s the time?” He took out his own phone before Remy could. He froze. He had 7 missed calls from Roman. “Oh… shit.”

“You okay, babes?” Remy asked.

“Y-Yeah… Roman’s been trying to contact me.”

“I’m sure it's fine. Maybe he just wants to apologise about earlier.”

Virgil laughed. “Roman apologising? That’ll be the day.” The nervousness that had disappeared when looking at Remy returned as he saw the notifications on his phone once more. “There’s a lot of missed calls. Shit! He’s going to be really pissed off.” 

Virgil scrolled through the texts Roman had sent him, spanning over the course of several hours. The most recent text came from about 10 minutes ago, which said ‘Logan’s given me your location. I’m coming to get you now’.

“Well…” Virgil sighed. “It looks like you’re about to meet my brother.”


	8. Chapter 8

Roman had been sitting in his room for hours with Patton’s accusing voice still echoing in his head.

Having his friends be angry at him was hard enough, but the idea that he had actually hurt them and made them feel worse made him want to curl up in a ball and never leave his room again.

And as he was currently curled up in a ball with his door locked, it seemed as though that may be what he was going to do.

Logan had initially threatened to break the door down using his telekinesis, but Patton had thankfully stepped in and told Logan to give Roman some space. While Roman appreciated the silence, it left him alone with his thoughts, which he was less thrilled about. 

Had he really been making things worse?

He hadn’t meant to. He cared about his friends and his brother so much, he would _ never _want to hurt them. 

After the… incident, all four of them had been a mess. 

Patton was right. None of them were okay. They had all tried to pretend they were after they returned, because they hadn’t known what else to do. None of them had been prepared for how to recover from being abducted and imprisoned by a mass murderer.

Emile had offered to help Virgil but had said that as he was friends with Patton, Logan and Roman it would be difficult to also be their therapist. The three of them had immediately used this as an excuse to never talk to Emile about anything that had happened, so that they didn’t have to think about any of it.

In hindsight this probably hadn’t been the best decision, but none of them wanted to talk about what happened, they just wanted to move on. Although clearly they hadn’t been able to move on as well as they had thought.

It hadn’t been easy with Virgil either. It had taken the two brothers a while to get on good terms again after Virgil’s betrayal which had shaken Roman to his core. 

He had been so happy when he realised that his brother was back in his life. From the moment Roman realised who Virgil really was he could no longer view him as a villain.

Maybe that had been his mistake.

He had completely distanced Virgil from everything that he had done, simply because he couldn’t believe his little brother could commit any of the crimes Anxiety had. So when they had all been captured, the idea that Virgil had anything to do with it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Because how could he?

After Virgil had rescued them and defeated Deceit, it had been a few weeks before Roman was on speaking terms with him again. He had found it difficult to trust Virgil again. 

Eventually Roman had realised that it wasn’t fair, and that after all Virgil had been through he deserved Roman’s trust and support, but it hadn’t been as easy as that. Being captured by Deceit had been terrifying, and as much as Roman had tried not to, he couldn’t help associating that time with Virgil. Virgil had been the reason they were captured in the first place, even if he hadn’t wanted to be.

He had only been able to trust Virgil again once he got over everything that had happened. Yet every time Virgil used his powers, Roman was reminded once again of who his brother used to be.

Maybe some people would be able to ignore the fact that someone they were close to was also a mass murderer, but Roman was struggling with that. He just wished there was a way to explain that to Virgil without telling him to his face that whenever he used his powers it brought Roman back to the terror and helplessness he felt when he was captured by Deceit.

Roman flinched as the realisation that he was still scared of his brother crossed his mind.

Virgil was right. He was just like their parents.

Roman sighed as he checked his phone. It was hours since his argument with Patton and Logan, and even longer since Virgil left. 

He hadn’t heard the door open, so Virgil clearly hadn’t arrived home. So where was he? He had been out all day and it was nearly the evening now.

He quickly sent Virgil a text to ask where he was. And then another, just to ensure that Virgil received the message. He knew that Virgil was fine, but he had been gone quite a long time. It was better to be cautious, just in case.

Roman sat for a few minutes staring at his phone. When after about fifteen minutes he didn’t receive a reply, he texted again. And then again. 

He hesitated before he called his brother. He knew that if nothing was wrong Virgil would be annoyed at him, but he couldn’t shake away the thoughts of all the horrible things that could have happened to his brother.

When his phone went to voicemail he started to panic.

“Virgil? I’m just calling to check on where you are? You haven’t been home for a while? I… I’m sorry about earlier… Anyway, um… Just call me back when you hear this…”

Roman hung up, before calling Virgil again. And again.

He was sure that Virgil was fine. There was no proof that he was in any kind of danger. But there was also no proof that Virgil was not.

Roman grabbed his ukulele and tried to practice, but his eyes kept drifting to his phone. He kept trying to reassure himself that Virgil was fine, but without knowing where he was his mind kept returning to all the worst possible situations.

He called Virgil again and sighed as the phone went to voicemail. 

Maybe he was just ignoring Roman because of their fight earlier. Roman hesitantly opened the door to his room and saw that Logan was sitting on the sofa.

“Logan?” he muttered as he slowly slipped out of the safety of his room.

Logan looked up. “Roman.” Logan nodded at him before looking back down at the book he was reading. “I assume you’ve finished your tantrum and are ready to discuss things like an adult now?”

Roman glared. “I wasn’t having a _ tantrum _.”

Logan turned a page. “That’s not what it looked like. Now Patton’s upset because he thinks he upset you. Are you going to apologise to him, any of us, for the way you’ve been acting?”

Roman gritted his teeth. “Actually, I was just wondering if you could call Virgil.”

Logan put down his book. “Why?”

“He’s not answering me. And I’m not sure whether that’s because he’s in danger or he’s ignoring me because he’s still angry at me.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “So you’ve been arguing with him too? Is there anyone in this city you haven’t picked a fight with yet?”

Roman flinched. “I… Can you just call him? Please?”

“Fine.” Logan sighed and took out his phone. Roman bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited to see if Logan would get a reply. 

Logan shook his head. “He’s not answering.”

The feeling of panic that had begun to decrease with the hope that Virgil had just been ignoring him resurfaced.

“However, I'm sure there’s nothing to be concerned about…”

Roman tuned Logan out as the thoughts of all the bad situations his brother could have landed himself into began to fill his mind.

He knew what he was about to do was probably a stupid idea. Virgil was already angry at him, and he hated it when Roman tried to keep track of where he was going or what he was doing. 

But he couldn’t just sit around when Virgil might be in trouble.

“Logan?”

“What?”

“You have a tracking thing on all of our phones, right? That’s how you found Patton and I when we-”

“When you recklessly attempted a job you didn’t have the skills for and because of you Patton got seriously injured? Yes, I remember.”

Roman scowled. “That’s not what happened.”

“That is _ exactly _what happened!” Logan glared.

“Anyway, could you tell me where Virgil is right now so I can go and find him?”

Logan sighed. “If I do, will you leave me alone?”

Roman nodded.

“Fine.” Logan checked his phone. “He’s at a club.”

Roman jumped. “A what?! What the hell is he thinking?! He can’t just go out without telling us where he’s going! What if there’s someone there who’s creepy?! Or someone recognises that he’s Anxiety and then all of them kill him?!”

“I highly doubt that’s going to happen-”

He called Virgil again. “He’s not replying. I'm going to find him.” 

“That’s not a good idea-”

“I’m not listening to you!” Roman grabbed his jacket and began to walk towards the door.

“He’s going to be angry at you if you do this.”

“He’s already angry at me!” Roman slammed the door.

…

When Roman arrived at the club,Virgil was already outside. Roman walked up to him cautiously, wary of Virgil’s reaction to him turning up when his brother had clearly been trying to get away from him. Relief flooded through him as he inspected his brother and he could see that he was unharmed. “Hi, Virg-”

Virgil glared at him. “What the _ fuck _are you doing here?!” 

Roman flinched. “You… You weren’t answering your phone. I was worried.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Well as you can see, I’m perfectly okay. Now do me a favour and fuck off.”

The man standing next to Virgil laughed. He was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, and his arms were crossed. Roman couldn’t see his eyes, but he was pretty sure the man was glaring at him.

Roman narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

The man peered over his sunglasses. “My name’s Remy. And you must be Roman. I’ve heard _ so much _about you.”

Roman crossed his arms. “Yeah? Funny, because I haven’t heard nearly enough about you.”

“Leave us alone, Roman,” Virgil snapped. “Did you not get the hint when I stormed out after screaming at you that I _ don’t want to see you _?!”

“You weren’t answering your phone!” Roman protested. “I wanted to make sure you were okay-”

“As you can see, I’m fine. Now go away.”

Roman considered just backing away and leaving before Virgil became any more angry with him, but his gaze drifted back to the man Virgil was with.

“I’m not just going to leave you with this random guy I don’t know!”

Remy scowled. “I don’t see how who Virgil spends his time with is any of your business.”

Roman glared at him. “Can you stay out of this, please? This doesn’t concern you.”

“Go away, Roman!” Virgil yelled, causing a few people walking down the street to give the three of them weird looks. 

“I just want to know who this guy is! How am I meant to know if you’re safe if you’re going out with random people!” Roman defended. Why was Virgil being so unreasonable about this? He just wanted to make sure Virgil was making sensible choices about the people he was spending time with. 

“Excuse me, hun, but I am not some _ random _person.” 

Roman growled. “I’m not talking to you!”

“He’s my friend!” Virgil glared. “We met months ago. We work together. We have a lot in common. We get along really well. And its none of your _ fucking _business!”

“Aw, Virgil, you’re so sweet,” Remy smirked.

Virgil smiled at him. Roman frowned at how happy his brother looked. When was the last time he had seen Virgil act that way about him, Patton or Logan? Why did Virgil seem so much more comfortable with this guy than with him? 

“I just want to make sure that he’s trustworthy!” Roman argued.

Virgil scoffed. “It’s none of your business who I make friends with!”

Roman felt his anger growing. He was trying to protect Virgil! Why did he have such a problem with that?! “I want to make sure you’re making a good choice!”

“I can choose who I’m friends with without your help!” 

“Can you?” Roman exploded. “Because you’ve made some pretty shit decisions on who to trust in the past!”

Shit. He really shouldn’t have said that.

Virgil flinched, and the hurt in his expression made all the guilt Roman felt about their earlier argument return.

“Excuse me?” Remy spluttered. “What did you just say?”

“I was jus-”

“I think I’ve heard _ quite _ enough from you.” Remy moved forward. “You know, I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I was willing to make my initial judgement of you based only on this meeting, and not on anything Virgil has told me about you, because let me tell you honey I have _ not _ heard good things. I was even willing to ignore the fact that you apparently have some kind of tracker to find Virgil, which is incredibly creepy, because you are clearly way too overprotective. But if you think, for one _ second _ , that you can bring up the fact that he was in an abusive situation and use it _ against _him in an argument, then you are even more of an asshole than you look!”

Roman froze. “I… I wasn’t-”

Remy glared at him. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Virgil grabbed Remy’s arm. “Rem, it's fine. You don't have to-”

“No, Virge, I clearly do have to, because if this _ bitch _thinks he can speak to you like this-”

“This has nothing to do with you!” Roman yelled.

“Actually darling, it does, because it's _ my _ friend that you’re treating like shit!” Remy snapped. “I know for a fact that this isn’t the first time you’ve used the traumatic situations he’s been in against him! And that is so effing messed up! You say you want to protect him, but all _ I’ve _ seen is you controlling everything he’s allowed to do and attacking him for being abused. Now I may not know everything that has happened to him, but I have interacted with him enough to see that whatever he went through was traumatic as hell. And you think you can just throw that in his face whenever you’re angry with him?! How _ dare _you!”

Roman backed away slightly from Virgil’s furious friend. “I’m not-”

“Um, I’m not done.” 

Virgil sighed. “Rem, just leave it. He’s not going to listen-”

“He’ll listen or I’ll _ make _him listen,” Remy growled.

Roman glared. “Oh, so you’re _ threatening _me now? Is violence really something you want in a friend, Virgil?”

Remy snapped his fingers in Roman’s face. “Don’t talk to him! I’m not finished with you yet. And yes, I am fucking threatening you.”

Roman laughed. “You think you can scare me? I think you’ll find I have certain _ advantages _ in a fight.”

“Roman!” Virgil warned.

“What? I didn’t go into detail!”

Remy smirked. “Really, hun? I think I’d surprise you.”

“Can you guys stop arguing about who’d win in a fight?” Virgil snapped.

“Of course, Virge. As soon as this _ bitch _ in front of me apologises and admits what an absolute _ asshole _ he is!”

“Don’t tell me what to do! You barely even know Virgil!” Roman shouted.

“Really?! Because it seems to me that I care about him a hell of a lot more than you do!”

Roman froze. “E-Excuse me?”

Remy laughed. “You heard exactly what I’ve said. I’ve heard about and seen how overprotective and controlling you are! I’ve heard about and seen how bad you make Virgil feel! But I’m yet to hear about or see anything good you’ve done!”

“I…”

“You know what, Roman?” Virgil stood next to Remy. “Rem’s right. I thought after everything that happened we would be brothers again. But it seems like all you want to do is argue! You clearly haven’t forgiven me, and you know what, that’s okay! If you aren’t over what happened that’s fine, but don’t fucking lie to me and say that everything is water under the bridge, when you clearly still don’t trust me and you’re clearly still angry about what I did!”

“I… I-I want to forgive you…”

Virgil sighed. “But you haven’t, have you?”

“I’m sorry…”

Virgil glared. “No you’re not. If you did, you wouldn’t treat me like shit.”

Roman recoiled. “I don’t!”

“Whenever I make a mistake you take _ every _ opportunity to throw it in my face! You’re constantly undoing _ any _ progress I make in therapy, and you’re constantly making Logan and Patton feel guilty about caring for themselves instead of following your delusional ideas. We are all so fucking fed up of you!”

“I know!” Roman yelled. “I know, okay! Logan’s told me, you’ve told me, even _ Patton’s _told me how much you all hate me! I get it! I’m horrible and I’ve made you all feel like shit!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Don’t play the fucking victim! You aren’t the victim here, Roman! _ You’re _ the bad guy! _ You’re _the one who’s fucked up! And we’re all tired of taking your shit!”

Roman felt tears fall down his face. “I-I’m so sorry, Virgil! I never wanted this I-”

“Just fuck off, Roman!” Virgil screamed. “You clearly can’t do anything other than make us feel bad, so why don’t you just fuck off and leave us all alone!”

Roman backed away. “I… I didn’t mean to-”

“Fuck off!”

Roman turned around and ran. He didn’t know where he was going, he just knew he had to get away, because the longer he was around his friends the more he seemed to make things worse.

As he rounded the corner he stopped, hoping with everything he had that maybe, just maybe, Virgil would run after him. He waited, praying that Virgil would come after him and tell him that he hadn’t meant what he said.

But Virgil didn’t come. Roman was alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you thought! Thanks for reading :)


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